A Pokémon Adventure!
by TheAbelo2
Summary: My first fanfic, about a young trainer who's lost his memory, and didn't want anything to do with pokémon. He finds out they aren't that bad, and begins his own adventure with them... Rated M because of swearing, violence, and lemons. I will add a new chapter every week, probably on Friday evenings. If not, expect one over the weekend! :P Hope you enjoy!
1. The Journey Begins!

**Chapter 1: the journey begins. **

Ouch. My head hurt. Really, really hurt. I had no idea how; I couldn't remember anything. I slowly opened my eyes, trying to get a good view of the surroundings. There were three people standing above me. One of them was saying something, maybe I should listen.

"Can you hear me? Are you alright?" said the boy with the baseball cap.

"He looks awful, maybe we should take him to a hospital." said the girl.

"Hey, I'm fine, I don't need to go to hospital. My head hurts a little, that's all." I said. I wasn't in the mood for some doctor to waste my time telling me what I already knew. I had a headache, that was all.

"Are you sure? You just collapsed in front of us." said the tanned dude.

I got up. "I don't remember that. Now I think of it, I don't remember anything. A few fuzzy images of... something. I don't know."

The boy held out his hand. "Hi, I'm Ash Ketchum and I'm from Pallet Town. These people are Misty and Brock.". I shook it gingerly. "Abel. I think." His name sounded familiar. "Aren't you a trainer... or something?"

"Yes, I'm a Pokémon trainer. I train Pokémon." Just to prove his point, a pikachu appeared on his shoulder. Wait, how did I know that was a pikachu? I just became confused. Oh, wait. Conversation. Yes. Good idea.

"Wow, I wish I could be a trainer like you." Damn! I had no intention of giving up my time. I had way better stuff to be doing! Like, um... Remembering! I had to do that.

"Well, you'll need to start with a Pokémon, and to do that you need to visit Professor Oak, but we're going to see him now, if you want to come." Well, anything but stay here. Maybe a polite rejection would work.

And then I heard it. It was faint, but unmistakable. I heard a keening, weeping sound. Damn! Right after this happened? Don't I get any peace? For a second I saw something in my mind... Then it went. But I knew I had to help.

"Shit. Someone's hurt... I've got to go!" I said and started running towards the sound.

It only took a few minutes to reach the clearing. It was right next to a cliff with a cave. The sound was coming from there, I was sure of it. As I went round the rocky outcrop, I saw a majestic orange creature at the entrance, roaring and breathing fire. "Charizard!" I said, then wondered why. It stopped and looked at me.

"What're you doing?" shouted the girl behind me. I sighed. They had finally caught up. "Do you want to be killed?"

Of course I didn't! But this charizard wouldn't hurt me. I could feel it.

"What's the point? Stupid humans." said the charizard. "Oi!" I shouted back. "I'm not stupid. Tell me what's wrong!" The charizard stared at me like I just grew another head. It even shut the annoying girl up. Then she started saying something again, about how something was impossible. Or something like that. I didn't really care. Right now, I was just tired and confused.

"What happened?" I asked the charizard. "What made you like this?"

"Beedrill took my charmander. And I can't leave this one behind or they'll get him too." it quietly said.

"Well, I'll just have to do my best." I said and started running again towards the faint buzzing.

"Wait, you can't go! It's a giant swarm, they'll only get you too! Stop!" shouted the charizard after me.

"Well, I'll just have to do my best then, won't I?" I replied.

"Where the hell do you think you're going?" The girl shouted. "I'm not done with you yet!"

I didn't really care. I had a Pokémon to save.


	2. Brave or Stupid?

**Chapter 2: Brave or Stupid?**

Here I am, running through the forest, no idea why I'm here or why I'm doing this. I feel I have to, but I don't know why. Some old obsession with Pokémon? I hope not. I don't want to be at the beck and call of any random wild pokémon, or any Pokémon for that matter. All that tedious training and battling... Urgh. No thanks. I'll just keep running and call this a one off. No more pokémon saving for me, thanks.

Ouch. Looking where I'm going is a good idea. Running into trees isn't. Or wild pokémon. They were just staring at me as I crashed through the foliage. This was a bad idea, but I had roped myself in now. Dammit, I had to focus! Otherwise I would just run into another tree.

"Shit!". That was a near miss. The wild pokémon were chattering quite loudly now. About how much of an idiot I was. Again.

"Shut up and piss off!" I shouted. It worked pretty well.

Ah, balls. I was here, and the charizard was right. There were a lot of beedrill. And a charmander in the middle, blood dripping down its face. Actually, blood over most of it. Balls. There was no way I could fight all of the beedrill and win. Right then I wondered how fast I could run. It was the only way.

I ran into the clearing and most of the beedrill turned to look at me. Well, at least they weren't attacking charmander any more. I grabbed charmander and started sprinting again. The beedrill buzzed angrily and started to chase me. The race was on. Just how far would the beedrill go to attack me and the charmander?

Quite far, actually. I had been running for five minutes and I couldn't run any further. The beedrill were gaining on us. I tripped over a root and fell, charmander landing heavily on top of me.

"I'm sorry, charmander." I said. I had done my best, but it wasn't enough. Then I noticed that it was unconscious. Great for it, but not for me. No help at all. No chance. Crap.

Then I heard a shout. "Pikachu, use Thundershock!" Wow, those guys had a great sense of timing. I saw the electricity arc through the air, narrowly missing charmander and me. The beedrill dropped to the ground. Ash appeared above me and held out his hand. I grabbed it and pulled myself up.

"Good timing, yeah?" He asked. What a prick.

"How's charmander? He looks pretty bad." He continued.

"Ash, look. The fire on it's tail, it's gone out." Misty said. I thought I knew what that meant.

"I didn't come this far to let this shit happen." I said. I had to do something. But what could I do? It was dead. I felt so damn useless! The hopelessness of the situation just built up inside me.

"Abel, are you all right?" queried Misty. "You look miserable."

"I'm not miserable, just damn angry!" I shouted. Screw this. I had to do something. Strangely, I felt... Good. Well, better than I had since the start of this shitty journey.

And then I remembered. Not much, a flash. A sad memory. Hands. Energy. Happiness. And I had an idea. It was a crappy idea, but I wasn't about to give up now.

"What do you think you're doing? You can't do that!" said Ash. I was really starting to dislike him. "We have to leave! The beedrill will wake up soon!"

There was no way I was leaving charmander. I closed my eyes and pushed with all the anger and hate I felt. All the hopelessness. All the despair, the fear. And I collapsed. My last conscious thought was "shit, not again.".


	3. New Friends?

**Chapter 3: New Friends...?**

I'm in a dark room, unsure of where I am. And then a black dragon appears, not entirely unlike charizard but possibly even more majestic. It's telling me to wake up. But I'm not asleep. What does it want me to do?

"You need to wake up. Come on, you're not dead yet. Just wake up!" It seems to be getting impatient, but somehow I know it could easily answer all my questions. It seems almost... Familiar?

"Fine, I'll answer your stupid questions. You're asleep. This is in your head. I'm your unconscious representation of you, embodied in someone you've met before." Well, that helped. Not. I'm even more confused than before. The dragon ploughed on regardless.

"You can talk to charizard because of all those months you spent learning to talk to me. Charizard and I are surprisingly similar actually. I imagine you'll learn to speak to more, given time and practise." Well, that explains a lot. How I could speak to charizard. Actually, it explains why Misty and charizard were so shocked when I spoke to it. The dragon continues.

"You're unconscious because you have literally run out of energy. You used it all, and then had so little, your body couldn't keep you conscious. You should wake up soon, with a little surprise you prepared yourself." What did that mean? How could I make a surprise for myself? And... The room's dissolving around me. Great. More stupid nonsense.

And then I opened my eyes. I was lying on my back. I saw a orange face appear in front of me. Wait, was that charmander?

"Char charmander?" it said.

"No, I'm not dead yet. Apparently it'll take a little more than that." I replied, pushing myself upright with a little smile. And Misty started having a go at me again.

"How did you do that? We thought you were dead! You'd stopped breathing! And charmander! How..." I stopped listening. And then Ash butted in with something way more important.

"The beedrill are waking up! We need to get out of here, now. Pikachu's pretty weak from its last attack." Uh oh. I grabbed charmander again and started out again. It seemed to pick up what was happening pretty quickly. The beedrill weren't following yet, so we had some time to get charmander back to the charizard. We ran through the woods listening to the quiet chatter of the wild pokémon. And the dragon was right, I could understand most of their conversations. It was mainly inane, but comforting. Behind me, the three children were still following, muttering among themselves. Probably about me. But I didn't care. I was happy right here, just running through the forest, pretty much alone. Oh, and there was charmander. It looked pretty content, just relaxing in my arms. It noticed me looking at it and grinned at me. And then we arrived. The clearing was right in front of us. All the turns I'd taken to escape the beedrill, and I nearly ended up back where I started. Maybe if I'd been a bit faster or not tripped, charizard could have helped with the beedrill and I wouldn't have a splitting headache or be feeling so damn tired!

"Well, we're here charmander. Time to go back to your mother." I said, placing it on the ground. Charizard heard me back and came rushing out of the cave.

"You're alright! I was so worried about you." it said, running up to charmander and hugging it.

"Thank you so much. I thought I'd never see him again!" It said to me. I turned around to the children, standing bemused, unsure what was being said by charizard.

"Good job, yeah?" I said.

"It was the right thing to do," said Ash. "but idiotic too." Which was right of course. But I still hated him for it. I turned back to charmander and gave it a small smile.

"Well, that was fun, but I wouldn't do it again. Stay safe! Goodbye, charmander." I said. Charmander suddenly looked quite sad and confused. Exactly the same way as I was feeling. I felt sorry for it, but I had to move on. Find out what the hell had happened to me, and maybe remember something. Anything. I turned around and started walking, not wanting to make it any harder for either of us.

"Come on, let's get to Pallet Town." I said, only half sarcastically. "We wouldn't want to be late, would we?" They caught me up and we started walking in silence, none of us wanting to talk about what had happened or was happening.

Suddenly, someone grabbed my leg. I looked down and saw... Charmander! And then I understood. I crouched down and faced him.

"Do you want to come with me, charmander?" I asked him. He grinned, nodded then leapt at me, nearly knocking me off my feet with the force of its fierce hug. I smiled and hugged him back. Maybe, just maybe, this journey would be better with him by my side.


	4. First Encounter

**Chapter 4: First Encounter**

It was dawn, the sun just beginning to creep over the horizon. The sky was a beautiful mixture of oranges, pinks and light purples. The three children were still asleep in their own sleeping bags, so I just lay there, hugging charmander for warmth, enjoying the view. He woke and gave me another huge grin. I smiled back; his good mood was infectious. We had to get up at some point though. I was a trainer now, right? I had to train charmander. I didn't have much idea how, but we'd be fine. Or, we could go to Pallet Town and rest up. We were both still pretty tired from yesterday.

"What do you think, charmander? We can start training with no clue what we're doing, or we can go to Pallet Town and rest first, and maybe find an expert."

"I think we should set off now," said charmander in his pokémon talk. "Then you can have some time to rest and I can start training."

"No," I replied. "You need rest too, and I'll train with you." Charmander nodded in agreement and got up. I slowly followed suit, still exhausted and sore from yesterday's healing. It couldn't really be anything else. But the dragon had told me that it took much more energy to do anything like that than do it normally, so only do it when absolutely necessary. As if I could do it again. I'd tried, and there was no result. Nothing.

I packed the sleeping bag into my rucksack I'd found last night. It was only a few feet away from where _they_ found me. I was astonished no one had seen it before.

Charmander and I started walking through the woods. There were hardly any wild pokémon awake, which made it peaceful and eerily silent. I was slightly afraid to be honest, but it didn't seem to affect charmander. He just carried on walking through the forest, just happy to be next to me. The children might be annoyed that I left them, but I didn't really care. I was happy too with charmander by my side.

Suddenly, out of the undergrowth sprang a zigzagoon. I looked at charmander.

"Well, I guess we've got our first battle," I said to him. He grinned at me and ran forward, ready to battle the zigzagoon. It started the battle with a growl attack. I thought for a second. Charmander was too young to know ember, but all young pokémon knew one attacking move.

"We don't have time to copy that, charmander, just tackle it," I said to charmander. He gave me a quick smile and started running towards the zigzagoon. It didn't even have time to dodge, he just hit it fair and square with all his weight. I winced. I'd already been on the receiving end of that. It went flying and came to a none too graceful stop on its side, fainted. I gently picked it up and laid it back in the plants that grew along the side of the path.

"You did it! You defeated your first opponent! I think it was even a critical! Well done charmander," I said, hugging him.

"We did it together," He told me, laughing. We continued walking, discussing the battle and other battles we might have.

"I seem to remember zubat are horrible. They attack in swarms and there are thousands in caves, so we're better off avoiding them for now." Charmander nodded.

"My mum said that even large pokémon can be taken down by them, there are so many. She said that for her, caves were usually a problem."

"Water pokémon might be a problem, especially with your tail. I doubt any would be evil enough to extinguish it, but a strong water gun and you'd be down."

"I'd need some way to protect it then, wouldn't I?" He asked.

"That would certainly be helpful." I replied. And then we reached the top of a hill. I picked charmander up so he could see the it too. Below, speak out beneath us was a small town surrounded by forest. Pallet Town. Finally. The view was beautiful.

"It's stunning, isn't it?" I said. Charmander simply nodded. Then the undergrowth rustled again.

"You think another wild pokémon wants to lose?" I asked charmander. He didn't respond. I glanced at him and he seemed really nervous. I didn't understand why, he managed to defeat the zigzagoon laughably easily. And then I looked back as a pokémon stepped out. It was a lucario. Balls. There was no way charmander could ever defeat something as powerful as that yet. I turned around to try and escape but a zoroark had come out too. There was no way out of this one. What a way to train charmander.

"Well, charmander," I said, trying to make light of it. "What were the chances of two high-level pokémon wanting to battle us at once?" I could feel charmander shaking in my arms. I didn't blame him. My heart rate had doubled too. How were we going to get out of this?


	5. Uh Oh

**Chapter 5: Uh Oh!**

So there we were, charmander in my arms, with a lucario in front of us and a zoroark behind. There was nothing we could do. The kids couldn't save us now, we left them behind, sleeping.

"Lucario's a steel type, charmander. Now would be a good time to learn ember," I told him. As if that would happen. As if it would help! Charmander was young, and the lucario and zoroark were clearly high-leveled, they were both evolved. A helping hand really would really, well, help right now. And then I heard the dragon again.

"How hard is it for you to remember? Zoroark's a dark type. Don't you remember all the fighting and training you did?"

Great. Nothing. No help, just another indication I was useless. Shit. Well, I had to try.

"Do you trust me charmander?" I asked. He nodded, unsure of what I was about to do.

"Trust me. I won't let anything happen to you. I promise." I put him down. "I'll take zoroark and then help you with lucario." If I survived, that is. I turned to face it just as charmander was facing lucario.

Suddenly, zoroark used fury swipes. The first one hit me, slicing through the muscle in my left arm and cutting across my chest. Blood started drizzling out of my arm and chest, slowly trickling away. I stood there, almost dazed as my blood ran away. The second one sliced through my stomach, slicing easily through my tensed muscles like a hot knife through butter. It hardly bled now, but I knew it would be bad when I relaxed. The force of the hit threw me a little, sending me stumbling backwards, but also waking me up a bit. The pain gave me something to concentrate on. And concentrating is good. I suddenly saw what I had to do, the way it worked. My hands started moving, seemingly by themselves, blocking and knocking aside the rest of the hits. Wow. I could have done with that earlier.

"Uh oh, lucario, I might need a little help for this one," it said nervously.

I was about to turn around when something slammed into my back, sending me flying to the ground. Crap! Lucario was a fighting type. Great. I flipped myself over and tried to stand up but it just hit me again. Right now I was bruised, bleeding and tired as hell. I couldn't stop both of them by myself. Then I heard a crackling sound and looked up again. Charmander had somehow used ember! And it was blisteringly hot, right at the lucario.

"Well done charmander! Keep it up!" I shouted. I turned back to zoroark, getting ready to attack. And then I heard a soft thud behind me. Shit. Charmander. I had to keep going; there was no way I could beat two at once without charmander. I had to take zoroark and let him get on by himself. Sod it. I just punched zoroark as hard as I could, once, twice, three times and it fainted. Thank goodness for brute force. It wasn't as if I remembered any fancy punches or anything anyway. I turned around to see lucario charging up an aura sphere at charmander, who was lying against a tree from where he'd been hit, struggling to stand up. Lucario was about to hit charmander with it. There was nothing I could do. It was useless. I couldn't stop it. I couldn't protect charmander; I'd broken my promise.

Then time froze. I was a there, in a room, with a window into the world I could see. And the dragon walked in again. It sighed.

"No, this probably won't be the last time you see me. I am your mind coping with the huge amounts of stress you've built up. You feel guilty about what's happening to charmander, but you can turn that to your advantage, like seeing me. That's a good start.

Look at the scene. Lucario's using aura sphere. You can't stop it, you can't make it faint before it uses it. You made a promise to charmander. You know what to do. Remember, just let it flow out of you. Don't push. Goodbye, at least for now. "

And I was back. No time to think. I jumped in front of lucario. I'd made a promise to charmander, one that I never planned to break. The aura sphere hit me. It hurt. A lot. I landed in front of charmander, facing him. He was only slightly scratched and bleeding, but there were big bruises all over his body and possibly some broken bones. I just didn't know.

"I did my best. I know you can still do it for us. Go and win this," I whispered to charmander, laying my hands on him. I felt all the stress of the battle, all the guilt of letting charmander get hurt and let it go. I winced as the energy began draining out of me, energy I needed to fix myself with. But I knew charmander could make it, help me. Once we'd done this, it would be fine. I saw charmander become strong again, ready to fight. His bruises faded, replaced with a confident look on his face. He knew, or at least he thought, he could finish it. That was good enough for me. The world began dimming. I had time to say one more thing.

"I'm proud of you charmander," I whispered. And then everything went black.


	6. A Nice Surprise

**Chapter 6: A Nice Surprise**

I woke up suddenly. No sort of gradual, slowly opening eyes or anything. Boom. Reality hit me. It was night-time, and someone had moved me. I was in a clearing, covered by trees, lying on a soft bed of moss, my arm and torso bound with leaves. Charmander had been busy! I heard a fire crackling to my right. I turned to look at it, about to congratulate charmander on his success. And then I saw lucario. He was just sitting there, relaxing by the fire, eyes closed. I needed to knock him out, find charmander and get out of here! Wait, did that mean charmander lost? He must've done if I was here and he was... gone. Uh oh.

I sprang up, leapt over to lucario and knocked him out with a well-placed punch to the head. At least, that's what I wanted to happen. What actually happened was I stood up, took a tiny step and fell over from the pain from my stomach. Lucario looked over while I was standing up, stood up himself, and caught me as I fell. I didn't care, I was in agony. But I had to find charmander. I began struggling feebly.

Then charmander appeared at the edge of my vision. He came over to me.

"Stop fighting. You need to rest. Don't worry, I've got everything under control." He said to me. He was right. I was tired. I just wanted to sleep. And I trusted charmander; everything was fine. I slowly closed my eyes...

I woke up, charmander lying in my arms. I immediately knew that it was alright; he wouldn't be here if it wasn't. I woke him gently and asked what had happened.

"You saved us," he said. I shook my head: I hadn't done anything. It was charmander who had defeated lucario and saved us.

"No," he explained, "when lucario saw what you did, he stopped attacking and said he was sorry, and he had to learn a lot from you."

"What?" I exclaimed.

"It's true," said a deep voice behind me. Lucario. "You're incredibly strong, and charmander told me you don't train at all. I think we could both benefit by learning from each other."

I considered it for a few moments. I could learn from him, become more powerful and control it. But I had to get to Pallet Town.

"I'm sorry lucario. I have to get going, but I'll promise to come back. Probably in a few days time."

Lucario nodded. "I understand. Well, we'll be waiting for you." Then charmander butted in.

"Can't we stay here just for today?" He asked. It was a good idea, and then maybe we wouldn't be as helpless. Well, one day couldn't hurt.

"Ok, you win. Let's get started." I said.

We didn't have much time so we started immediately. Zoroark took charmander away while lucario taught me about the aura.

Several hours later, I was exhausted from the mental and physical exercise lucario had made me do. But I knew much more about my power and how it worked. And how to control it. In Lucario's words: "It's like a field that covers Earth. You can't create or destroy it, but you can stress it. These stresses can be used to attack, like using aura sphere, or you can use them for other things like healing and also, it gives you limited psychic power because every living being stresses the aura too."

In return, I had told him all of what I remembered, right from waking up to before I met him. He told me that I was so strong because I put my emotions into it.

"And that's where we're different. I train hard and concentrate; you feel how to do it" He had said.

After what seemed like only a short while, the day was over. The sun was setting and charmander and I set off, waving goodbye for real this time. I would come back. But we had to set off and become stronger and better. We were a pokémon and trainer now, weren't we? In fact, no. I disliked that; no, I hated it. I didn't want to rule over anyone or order them around. The relationship between pokémon and trainer was supposed to be based on trust, right? Why not be like this then?

"Charmander, I want to tell you something," I said. He looked at me expectantly.

"From now on, I want to trust you completely. And I want you to trust me too. We need to be able to do that, so from now on, you can take anything I say as a suggestion and not a command. Got it?" He nodded.

"However, I think there will be times when I tell you to do things you would hate to do. When I tell you those, it's vital you do listen." Charmander looked a little concerned.

"Don't worry, I won't tell you to do anything like that unless it's absolutely necessary." He still looked worried.

"Come on up, charmander." I told him, or rather suggested. He jumped into my arms and gave me a little smile.


	7. Again?

**Chapter 7: Again? **

I belched loudly, trying not to look at charmander. It was futile. He caught the corner of my eye and we both burst out laughing. Nurse Joy, walking past, cast a disapproving stare at me. Whoops.

"Sorry," I called out to her. She just walked past me.

Charmander and I had found a pokémon centre to stay the night. It was pretty nice, and we got breakfast.

"Say that to your charmander," she suddenly replied without even looking at me. "He looks like he could really do with a check-up." She walked away, muttering about selfish trainers.

I looked at charmander and he nodded, and replied he wouldn't mind one. It was annoying I couldn't ask him myself, but we'd agreed that it was better if nobody else knew I could speak to pokémon.

"I agree. I think charmander needs a check-up," I told her.

"That took you long enough," she said. "Come back for him later." I waved goodbye to charmander as she took him away then set off outside myself. Maybe I should go in the woods, challenge a machoke or something. Lucario had taught me some cool tricks. And I probably could do with some exercise after that breakfast! I quickly started walking.

I found a small clearing a few hundred metres off the road from Pallet Town. It was perfect. I wondered if I could talk to any of the numerous wild pokémon around here.

"Can anyone hear me?" I shouted to the forest. There was a gentle rustle of leaves on the other side.

"Don't be shy, I won't hurt you," I said. A small head poked out of the leaves. It was a nidorina!

Then an eevee burst into the clearing, tired and out of breath. The nidorina fled. The eevee came over and hid behind me. Why?

A man came running into the clearing. He looked around and saw it behind me.

"Excuse me, please could you return my eevee to me?" He asked, menace heavy in his voice. I felt eevee trembling against me and looked at him. He had a belt with a pokéball in, and he was holding another one. In his other hand, he was holding a blue stone. The term 'water stone' sprang into my head. I guessed what was happening.

"Come on eevee, we need to get you back to your owner," I said, grabbing it. It immediately started struggling, so I spoke to it quietly, in pokétalk.

"Don't worry, I can guess what's going on and I won't let it happen."

Eevee still struggled, but less now. It could see I was still walking towards the man, but I think it trusted me a bit more.

My heart started racing. I had to do something.

"I can't let you do this. This is just evil." I said. He frowned at me.

"I don't care what you think. It's my eevee, and I'll do what I want to it." He said. He put the pokéball he was holding into the belt and took out another one.

"It's my eevee, and you can't stop me," he said. He threw a pokéball and out came geodude. This should be easy! But this one would be trained and a lot stronger than wild ones.

"Geodude, use magnitude," he shouted. It hit the ground and it started shaking. To my shame, I fell over. Apart from everything else, it was embarrassing. I stood up. Time to take it down. I used hi-jump kick.

"Geodude, dodge it!" Geodude quickly moved out of the way. I landed awkwardly on my leg and a sharp pain shot up my side. Crap. Hi-jump kick hurt the attacker if it missed.

"Good, now tackle!" He said. Shit and balls. This was not good. It wouldn't take me down, but it would knock me out for long enough for him to make his escape with eevee. It started rushing towards me, guard open. I managed to get in a kick before it hit me, but then it hit.

I woke up just in time to see eevee use tackle and knock out the geodude. Wow, she was strong! The man was visibly angry as he withdrew geodude.

"That's it, I've had it with you!" He shouted. He suddenly lunged forward and grabbed eevee.

"Not so strong now, are you?" He tauntingly asked. I kicked his legs out from under him. Eevee came flying to me, so I gently caught her. The water stone appeared out of nowhere, flying towards eevee. Almost before I knew what was happening, some instinct kicked in and I knocked it away.

"That was close, wasn't it?" I jokingly commented. "Come on, let's get out of here before he gets up. There's someone else you need to meet."

When we arrived at the pokémon centre, there was a police car outside. "Uh oh, I hope we can help," I said to eevee. We walked in and were immediately stopped by a woman with a blue uniform. I guessed she was the police officer.

"Is this your charmander?" She demanded. I nodded.

"Nurse Joy informed me, Officer Jenny, that you've been maltreating your charmander." Eevee glanced at me. I tried to ignore it. I could explain this to her later.

"You'll need to come with me." Wait, what? No, I didn't have time for this.

"Charmander, I never hurt you, do I?" I asked charmander, in plain English for Officer Jenny. Charmander shook his head.

"He might have said that just because you do, because you would hit him if you didn't." She responded. I looked at charmander in desperation. He responded by grinning and leaping into my arms. He turned and smiled at Officer Jenny. She couldn't deny that, could she?

"Fine, you win. But I'll be keeping an eye on you." She said. Phew.

"Come on eevee, we need to talk," I told her, going towards our room. We both had a lot to find out.


	8. Happy?

(Author's note)

Woohoo! Christmas!

I wasn't going to upload anything until after Christmas, but I had a special request from timitin147 to upload something, so here it is. By the way, timitin147, thanks for taking some time to review, and continuing to read my story! It means a lot to me to hear from the people who read my story, and it motivates me to write more for all of you. Anyway, I've said enough. On with the story!

**Chapter 8: Happy? **

After a long talk with eevee, I discovered what had happened.

"So, in summary, you wanted to become an umbreon, but your trainer wouldn't let you because he wanted a vaporeon." She nodded. Charmander had already told her about everything that had happened to us so far. I'd done some research too. Apparently, she needs to be very happy and then level up at night.

"I know what we can do," said eevee, smiling naughtily. A quick glance at her aura confirmed my suspicions.

"No! We can't do that!" I replied quickly. "Apart from how wrong and immoral it is, if the police find out, they'll take you away. I don't want that to happen."

"What can we do then?" Charmander asked.

"I've looked at this too. Basically, she can win battles, stay out of her pokéball and not get hurt. Not easy, but doable."

"Well, I wouldn't mind being a flareon," she commented. I looked at her. Hold her gaze, I thought to myself. Pause, and then...

"You realise you'll stay like that for the rest of your life, right?" I said. She shifted uncomfortably.

"For the rest of your life, I don't think 'I wouldn't mind' is anywhere near good enough. Whatever I can do, I will." I stated. "Now, let's get started."

It was midmorning and all three of us were stood in a field by the edge of the town.

"Tackle me," I told eevee.

"That was one of your funny suggestions, right?" She queried.

"As I said before, my suggestions are well worth listening to. Besides, it won't hurt me. Charmander, demonstrate." Charmander looked askance at me, like I'd told him to kill me.

"Come on charmander, one tackle with all your force!" I encouraged. He ran towards me and hit with some force, but it didn't really hurt me. I told eevee it was her turn. A glint appeared in her eyes, and before I had time to doubt myself, she quickly bounded over to me, much faster than she should have been able to, and hit me with tackle. In the stomach. I was knocked over backwards, barely able to breathe. I managed to take one small gasp before my lungs seized up again. Eevee came over to me, a look of concern on her face and started stammering an apology.

"I... I'm sorry... I didn't mean to hit you that hard..." I hit myself in the stomach again, making me cough and enabling me to breathe, and stopped her.

"That was amazing! You're incredibly strong, so don't apologise, just do that in battle and we'll be fine. You don't need training, you just need to battle other trainers." And we started.

It was just after dusk. We'd battled many trainers on the road out of town, and eevee and charmander had, quite happily, shared all the battles between them. Each took over if the other was tired, and if not, they alternated battles. Charmander and eevee were both tired, but happy. Which was exactly what we wanted. Eevee took out the rattata she was battling with a well-timed bite, which she learnt earlier.

"Aww man, your pokémon are strong!" complained the trainer, withdrawing his rattata. Both eevee and charmander leapt over to me, sending me sprawling with the combined force of their fierce hugs. And then eevee brought up something I hadn't even thought of.

"When are we going to eat? I'm starving." I spotted some berries on the side of the road, handing them to eevee and charmander.

"We'll head back now, but will these do for now?" I asked. Charmander replied, "They're brilliant! You should try some." I ate one and quickly felt rejuvenated and less tired. But they had a funny mixture of tastes, not unpleasant, but weird.

"It's a shame you didn't evolve today, but we can always try again tomorrow." I moodily commented. Eevee nodded in agreement, berry juice dripping down her chin. She smiled at me. She didn't mind. Neither did I. We could wait a few days for her benefit.

"Cmon guys, let's go." I said, turning back towards the village. Suddenly I heard a voice behind me.

"You wouldn't be running from a battle, would you?" Ash asked.

"Never." I turned around and gently smiled.

"Go pikachu!" Ash shouted, pikachu jumping down from his shoulder. Charmander turned to eevee and smiled.

"This one's yours," he said.

"Aren't you going to choose a pokémon?" Ash asked.

"They've already chosen for themselves." I said, while eevee was bounding forward.

"Pikachu, start with thundershock!" He said. It hit eevee, paralysing her.

"Now thunderbolt!" He shouted.

"You can dodge this, eevee!" I encouraged. She shook her head and managed to leap out the way before it hit.

"Eevee, I'll leave this up to you." I said. "You choose the moves you do."

Eevee looked at pikachu, then used tackle. She hit, sending it flying backwards, but she was paralysed from pikachu's Static.

"Pikachu, thunderbolt again!" Ash cried.

"One more dodge and tackle, eevee." I said. She tried her best, but the thunderbolt hit her anyway. She looked really tired. The day had been tough.

"Eevee, we've lost. Come on, I don't want you more hurt." She just looked at me and used quick attack. Pikachu used Agility, dodging it easily. They ran around for a few seconds, until eevee stopped in the middle, out of breath. Pikachu came running towards her, using quick attack. I could barely watch.

Somehow, suddenly, she managed to copy pikachu's Agility. Pikachu missed her and looked around, confused. She suddenly rammed into him with quick attack. He flew through the air again, landing at Ash's feet. He struggled to get up, then fell over, fainted.

"You did it!" I shouted, pleased for her. She bounded up to me and jumped into my arms. Then I heard a voice.

"You won't get away with this! I will have my eevee back!" The man shouted. Eevee started trembling.

"Don't worry eevee, I'll always protect you," I said, holding her tighter. She looked at me then grinned. She started glowing white. She was evolving! She was getting bigger in my arms, then stopped glowing. She was an umbreon! A beautiful umbreon.

The man stopped in his tracks. He started running away again, saying "The police will hear about this!" I didn't care.

"Come on, we need to get going now," I stated.

"Umm, can I stay out here for a bit?" umbreon asked.

"Sure, but you need to be back to the pokémon centre in... Uhhhh... 45 minutes, otherwise I'll assume you're in trouble and come looking." Umbreon nodded.

Charmander and I had barely been back at the pokémon centre for 20 minutes when umbreon came in the door.

"Thanks," she said. "I'm tired now though, so can we go to bed?"

"Of course," I replied. I couldn't wait for tomorrow.


	9. Naughty Naughty! (My first lemon)

(Author's note)

This chapter is one of the reasons this story is rated M. It contains descriptions of graphic images. If you want to just skip this chapter, that's fine and probably won't affect the story. Read on at your own peril! Bwahahaha! (Sorry.)

BTW, this is my first lemon, so please don't hate about it, but I am open to suggestions (for the next one?!)

**Chapter 9: Naughty Naughty! **

We were all in bed. Charmander was asleep, but umbreon and I were still awake because we were both freezing. I didn't know how it was so cold! It had been cool today, but now it was snowing outside. I was slightly jealous of charmander's fire.

"Are there any more blankets?" umbreon asked, shivering. "I'm cold."

"Me too." I replied. "I can't sleep."

"Can I come into your bed for warmth?" She queried. I nodded.

The moment she lay next to me, the temperature started rising. It was nice and warm. She shuffled over on top of me and we were both even warmer.

"I love you," she said.

"I love you too, but not in that way." I replied. She gently licked my cheek, which did feel nice. I licked her cheek back and she giggled. And then, for some reason, my muscles started seizing up. I couldn't move! I knew it wasn't her saliva; what was it? I managed to trace it back to a pretty powerful alakazam in the woods. Why? She noticed my lack of movement and started crawling under the blankets. She threw them back, and proceeded to pull down my trousers.

"Umbreon, don't!" I said in a warning tone. But I was helpless to stop it. I couldn't stop her with the aura; I couldn't concentrate. She grinned at me, pulled out my dick and started sucking. I couldn't use the aura to stop her; I'd have to convince her.

"Umbreon, I don't _ahhh_... don't want the police to find out and _ohhh_... take you away, and it's just wrong for me to _mmmmm_... to take advantage of you like this." She looked at me and took it out of her mouth. Phew. But then she started gently massaging it with her front paws, making me moan with pleasure.

"The police won't find out unless you tell them, and it's more like me taking advantage of you. But I needed to say thank you and show exactly how much I love you." I could understand that, but...

And then she put her mouth around my penis again, continuing to rub it with her paws, gently nibbling the top. I moaned in ecstasy. Her mouth felt so good!

"Umbreon, I'm going to-" I started. She kept going as I was cumming, thick white goo shooting into her mouth. She took her paws off me. Now was my chance to break free! I stressed the aura around me, and felt the alakazam's hold on me weaken. I concentrated harder, and it was gone. I had to stop it trying again. I suspected it was trying to help umbreon, so I sent it an image. Umbreon dead, her neck snapped with my hands around it. I felt it recoil, unbelieving, and then it broke the link.

Umbreon noticed I was able to move again. I noticed where she had moved. She slammed herself down on me, breaking her hymen and crying out in pain, tears coming to her eyes. I slid my dick out of her and cuddled her.

"Why did you do that?" I asked. She licked some of the cum off her lips.

"I love you, and you were just about to stop me, weren't you?" I touched her mind and saw exactly how much she adored me; how much she wanted, no, needed to do this. And I understood.

"I'll never stop you," I replied. "I love you too." She looked at me and smiled. She slid herself down my body and onto my cock, making both of us moan. She slowly started thrusting onto me, up and down, up and down. She was intentionally going slowly; I wasn't sure whether it was her trying to get even or just her strange little way of saying she loves me. Whatever it was, it still felt really good. She sped up a little as we became wetter, making quite a bit of noise. It wouldn't wake charmander though, he sleeps like a rock. She started moaning a little louder and sped up a bit more. Suddenly, a flow of cum came out of her, wetting my legs and pushing me over the edge. I tried to hold on, but her pounding was too much so I came into her, filling her with my semen. Breathing heavily, she slowly stopped.

"*pant* This makes us mates now, *pant* right?" She queried.

"I don't see why we can't be," I replied, gently stroking her soft fur. "We've just had sex, and I think that makes us mates." She smiled at me and snuggled a bit closer.

"Well, I think you'll make a great mate, but we aren't done yet," she commented, standing up.

"Wait, what?" I asked. She turned around and lifted her tail, revealing her sexy ass. Wow, she knew how to make a man horny! I grabbed her back legs and pulled her towards me, then lay down on top of her, and hearing her cute giggle just drove me on. I slid my cock, still covered in her cum, slowly into her ass. She wriggled beneath me and I thought for a second she was trying to escape, but then I realised she just wanted to be closer to me. I started thrusting my dick into her, and slid my hand underneath her. I pushed my fingers into her wet pussy and started fingering her too, hearing her soft squeals and making her wetter. I moved my head next to hers and licked her cheek again, leaving a wet trail through her silky fur. And then she surprised me. She turned her head towards me and kissed me, straight on the lips. It was unexpected, but not unpleasant, so I pulled her closer, deepening the kiss. She playfully shoved her tongue into my mouth; I could taste my own cum. I drove my fingers deeper into her slit, making her moan into my mouth and flooding my mouth with her saliva. My tongue went on a quick tour of her warm, wet mouth but then I broke away to concentrate on pounding her and pushing my fingers deeper. During the quick kiss, I'd given her a little more space, so she began to throw herself at me, driving my dick further into her tight hole. I started thrusting my fingers deeper into her, fast and rough. She squeaked as she began cumming onto my hand, wet streams soaking it and the bed underneath. Her ass contracted around my cock, making me cum. I pounded her a few last times while I was ejaculating, squirting my load deep into her anus.

I pulled my fingers and dick out of her, letting her cum and my semen drip slowly out of her holes. She got up and pushed me onto my back - wow, she was strong! - and lay down on top of me, a contented look on her face. Her back legs were straddling my stomach, making it wet, but I didn't care. And then I had an idea.

"Hey, you got to say we continue," I said. "Now I say we keep going, and I can get even with you."

"What?" She said, a slightly confused and worried look on her face.

"Don't worry, you'll enjoy it," I replied with a grin. I gently picked her up, slightly struggling and complaining, and laid her on my head, my face between her back legs, which I placed around my head. She stopped complaining immediately.

"But why would you do this?" She asked, blushing. "I mean, I'm only me, and you're... You."

"People do strange things when they're in love," I replied with a small smile, tasting the sodden fur on her back legs. She was sweet and slightly musky, and I liked it. She shuffled around, presumably to make me stop teasing her and get on with it. She slowly tried to lower her wet pussy onto my mouth, but I turned my head slightly and began to lick at the side of it, teasing her a little more. She whimpered gently and let out a little squirt of cum onto my face, most just going in my mouth. All it did was make my face more wet and me more horny. Well, if she was going to do that...

I shoved my tongue deep into her dripping slit, then grabbed her sexy hindquarters and pulled her down onto my face, my mouth, hearing her mewl with happiness. Everything she'd done for me, to me, I was going to do back to her. She would be an amazing mate, and I just wanted to be with her because I loved her.

I was brought back to the present when she moaned again, a small stream of cum flowing onto me. She started using her legs to rub herself on my face, and I could tell she was really happy. I tried to push my tongue in even further, to make her scream in pleasure. She mewled again, just like a cub, and a mixture of her cum and my saliva ran down my cheeks. She was close, I knew. All I had to do was push a little harder and... All I heard was her soft scream of ecstasy before she began cumming all over my face, thick streams pouring out of her and into my open mouth. I swallowed as much as I could, but I didn't keep up with the pace she was squirting it out, and it soaked my face and the bed underneath us. After what felt like ages, she finally stopped and got off me, turning over and lying next to me on her back, legs spread and still breathing heavily. She probably wanted to cool down, and maybe dry off a bit. We were both tired and needed sleep. Oh, there was one last thing.

"I love you," I whispered to her.

"I love you too," she replied, leaning in. I leant in too and kissed her on the lips. And neither of us wanted to stop, so we fell asleep lying there, kissing each other. I felt like I was the happiest guy in the world.

(Author's note)

If you liked this chapter, please feel free to tell me via PM or a review. Or if you didn't like it, still feel free to tell me, either how to improve later ones, or just to stop completely.

I enjoyed writing this, but it took me AGES to do compared to other chapters, so I will do more if they're wanted, but only occasionally, once every 9 or 10 maybe, more if they're popular (reviews? Please?).


	10. Charmeleon?

**Chapter 10: Charmeleon!**

I woke up, umbreon in my arms, charmander staring at us from the top bunk, hanging down.

"She was just cold last night, some of us don't have our own personal fire." I explained. He nodded and his head disappeared up onto his bunk again. Umbreon woke up and looked at me, I think to see my reaction about last night. Well, it was nice... But I couldn't let it happen again. Could I?

"That was a one off," I said. She looked at me like I'd just told her I hated her.

"Hey, don't be like that. At the very least, we've got to get today over and done with first." She cheered up a little.

"First, I think we need to find something to eat. I'll go out and find a restaurant or something while you wake up and get ready, or whatever you want to do." Umbreon nodded, smiling. I think charmander was asleep again. I got out of bed and pulled on my clothes, and as I was leaving the door, I said to umbreon behind me, "Get him up, will you?" I shut the door, trusting she would. It was a nice feeling, being able to trust people (or pokémon!).

A few minutes later, I was walking around, taking my time. Just wandering around the town, enjoying the view. It was a beautiful little town with lovely scenery and a little strip of beach, which nobody was on. Maybe we could go there later. But first, breakfast. There! A nice little diner, overlooking the beach. Perfect. I could head back, fetch charmander and umbreon, have breakfast then head straight to the beach! Wow, we'd have a great day. And umbreon, maybe she'd forget her plans for tonight... Actually, I doubted it. I'd have to either dissuade her or restrain her. And talking probably wouldn't work. Well, I'd get to that when the time came. Right now, breakfast. We were all hungry.

I got back to the pokémon centre and walked in. I went over to our door and tried to open it. That was strange. It was locked! I got my key out and unlocked it, and burst in, about to tell them about the diner and beach. Charmander was on top of umbreon on the top bunk. He had just stopped pounding her, and was staring at me, a guilty look on his face. Umbreon was straining to see who was at the door, although she couldn't from where she was. Well, this was embarrassing. Bad time for me to open the door. I started speaking, and umbreon cringed at the sound of my voice.

"Um... Sorry. Don't worry, I'm not angry. I'll just give you a bit more time to get... Ready." I closed and locked the door behind me. Well, charmander had to grow up some day. I guessed that umbreon had started it, but I could question them later, at a better time for all of us. But how could she have done this? I trusted her, and she had been with me. I guess pokémon didn't mate for life. She said she was my mate! I said I wasn't angry, but I was confused and frustrated.

***** Umbreon's view *****

I had woken up in my new trainer's arms, the best place to be. He'd finally come round to my point of view last night, and we'd had some fun. But then he told me that it wouldn't happen again! I didn't do all of that for just one night. I'd make sure it'd happen again. He got dressed and started to leave. But then he turned around and told me to wake up charmander, and he'd be back in a bit. Well, at least he trusts me. I climbed up to charmander's bunk, which was difficult with my paws, but I could manage.

"Wake up, sleepyhead," I said to charmander. He opened his eyes and pulled me down on top of him.

"I heard what you were doing last night." He said. "Or rather, who." I was surprised; I though he was asleep. And I was also slightly guilty. It must have showed on my face, because he then said,

"Are you going to make it up to me?" Well, I was surprised, but I wasn't going to say no to an offer. I nodded my head and smiled. I had to go and lock the door though. I didn't want anybody coming in and stopping us, least of all our trainer. I got back up onto charmander's bed and he pulled me down and got on top of me. He was strong! I couldn't wait to battle him when he evolves. Or have more fun with him...

It was all going well and nicely until I heard the lock click. I tried to warn charmander, but we were both out of breath and he was... Well, too busy with me to listen. Uh oh. I heard the door open, and then I heard his voice. He was back. Dammit! Why now? I cringed; he must be feeling awful. I'd just betrayed his trust. He trusted me, and I'd done this? Why? What had I done?!

But then I heard him say he wasn't angry, or even annoyed. And he said he'd give us a bit more time together. I didn't want that! Him being angry would be better than the disappointment in his voice. He closed the door and charmander tried to continue. He pushed me back down and lay on me, but I just shoved him away.

"How can you just keep going? He trusted me, trusted us, and we let him down."

"Quite easily, you just need to forget about him for now. He said we had a little more time, let's use it!" I was in a situation now. I could be faithful to my new trainer, and show him I cared about him, or I could have a bit more time with charmander. I wish he'd been angry, then I wouldn't have had to choose, but...

"Hey, where are you going?" Charmander asked as I leapt off the bed. I could hear the tension in his voice, but he could wait for now.

"I have someone to apologise to," I replied. Charmander growled in frustration and leapt after me. I was near the door when he knocked me to the floor, landing heavily on my back.

"What the hell are you doing?" I angrily asked. He slowly got off me, shaking his head.

"I'm sorry, I'm just really confused and... kinda annoyed at you. Well, really annoyed."

"You were the one who started it! Why did you do that? You need to apologise just as much as me. We need to explain what happened."

Charmander shook his head. I could tell he was worried, about me and our trainer. He said he wasn't angry, but he'd surprised both of us before.

"Come on, we need to catch up. Now." I said. He frowned and started growling again, a deep throaty sound that echoed eerily. I was forcing a tough choice on him, but he'd done the same to me five minutes ago. He shook his head again, and... Started glowing!

"Charmander, what's happening? Are you evolving?" He didn't respond. I was slightly worried, but just as quickly as it started, it stopped. He was a deep shade of red and slightly bigger.

"Is that you... Charmeleon?" I asked him. He grinned and nodded.

"I feel better now. Much. I don't know why, but let's go before the feeling goes." His voice was deeper too.

I unlocked and opened the door and bounded out, charmeleon following.

I followed his scent into the woods. I don't know why he came here, especially alone. Maybe he just wanted to get away. What I didn't expect to see was him slumped against a tree, unconscious and with blood running down his head, and my friend alakazam standing over him, spoons held towards him charging up a psybeam. However, that was the sight that met my eyes. How did he manage to get in such trouble?

***** Abel's View *****

All I could think about as I walked was, "How could she do that to me?" I didn't even notice where I was going. I didn't really care. I just needed to take a break, get some breathing space and meditate for a while, which would help my powers too. I looked up and found myself in the forest. Good. I could find a small, quiet clearing and be by myself for a while. Then I saw something yellow out of the corner of my eye.

"Come on out, I can see you. There's no need to hide," I said in pokétalk. An alakazam came out from behind the trees, spoons held up in front of it.

"You can put those down, I'm not going to hurt you," I said nervously.

"Really? Like you wouldn't hurt her?" It angrily replied. I quickly realised this was the alakazam I'd told umbreon was dead last night, and this situation was a lot worse than I thought. Crap.

Suddenly it got even worse. Alakazam jumped at me, knocking me back against a tree. Normally, I could have stood up and defended myself, but I'd hit my head. I was dizzy and couldn't concentrate. I could slightly sense the aura, so I could have recovered, but it would take half an hour, which I didn't have. I felt it hit me with a psybeam, throwing my head back against the tree. My brain couldn't take it any more. I felt my heart and breathing slow as my brain started to shut down. Good for repairing itself, not so good for defending myself. The last thing I saw was it charging another psybeam. Great. I could barely think, let alone defend myself. All I could do was hope.

***** Umbreon's view *****

I leapt up at alakazam just as she let go of the psybeam. It flew off course and hit the wood above his head.

"What are you doing?" I shouted at her. "Are you trying to kill him?"

"Umbreon?" She queried. "... He told me you were dead. Killed by him." Why would he do that? Unless...

"Was this last night?" I asked, still angry but beginning to understand.

"Yes, why?"

"I think he just wanted you to leave us alone..." That was idiotic, but cute in a way. Alakazam looked sheepish.

"Whoops. Well, sorry," she said.

"Say that to him, when he's woken up." In fact, we had to get him back to the pokémon centre. His head was bleeding quite badly, and I knew a little about concussion. Enough to be worried. While all of this was going on, charmeleon was just stood over our trainer, his expression unreadable. He turned to face me, and said,

"You realise we could just run away now, right? We could just leave and he'd never catch us." I stared at him.

"And do you want to run away?" I asked icily.

"No, of course not. And I know you don't either. But it's funny, isn't it? That sort of forced trust. I don't know. I'm just really worried about him."

Alakazam lifted Abel up and reminded us we needed to get going.

"I won't be able to go very fast though," she said. "To lift something as heavy as him takes a lot of concentration so I can't go fast too, and you'll need to pull him."

Five minutes later, we hadn't even got out of the forest and charmeleon was visibly annoyed.

"Can't we go any faster?" He asked angrily. "Or are we just going to let him bleed to death here?"

"We can't go any faster!" I shouted back. "And I'm just as worried about him as you, so don't you dare shout at me!"

"Shut up, both of you. This bickering is doing nothing." Alakazam interrupted. Charmeleon rested his head on a tree and cried out in frustration.

"Shouting at that tree is doing nothing! In fact it's slowing us down because you aren't helping," I yelled at him. He turned to face me, and he was incredibly angry. I was really worried now; I'd overstepped the mark. He was just about to lose it completely.

"THIS IS USELESS! HE'LL DIE BEFORE WE GET THERE!" He screamed at us. I was incredibly scared. And then something happened that, impossible as it seemed, made me even more scared. He started evolving. Again. In almost no time at all, he was a massive charizard. How were we going to explain this? Well, if he didn't kill us first. He gave a massive roar and snatched Abel with his front legs, kicked off and started flapping his wings. It took him a few tries, but he managed to launch himself into the sky and start travelling forwards with a lot of speed. He'd learnt to fly in seconds! I was impressed, but I still needed to follow. I started running behind him, leaving alakazam behind. After all, charizard was strong, but he needed someone to look after our trainer. I guess the job fell to me.

(Author's note)

Wow! This chapter was long, and I enjoyed every second of writing it. Sorry for the cliffhanger, but it was already nearly twice as big as the next biggest chapter (at the time of writing), so I had to stop.

And they didn't even get breakfast :(. Well, there's always next chapter! And I enjoyed this chapter so much, it'll probably be just as long.

Thanks for reading to the bottom!


	11. Breakfast?

**Chapter 11: Breakfast?**

I saw umbreon a small distance away down a rocky path, screaming and struggling. Her legs were tied together. I saw the man, her original owner, behind her holding a long knife and smiling. I looked down at charmander for help, but he just shook his head sadly. I started sprinting, as fast as my body would let me, but I knew I would be too slow. I saw the knife arc down towards her neck, and had no choice except to listen in horror to her long scream as it abruptly ended and watch as the blood poured out of her - now lifeless - body. I felt useless, hopeless. I let her die.

I woke up, drenched in sweat. There was a massive charizard leaning over me, staring into my eyes. So I did the manly thing and screamed. It quickly clamped its hand over my mouth, silencing me.

"It's me, charmander," it told me. What? No, that couldn't be right. That would mean he'd evolved twice! Wait, how long had I been out? I was in the pokémon centre, on a bed, charizard next to me. Something was wrong.

"Where's umbreon?" I asked. Charizard shook his head.

"She followed me when I carried you here yesterday," he said. Well, at least I'd only been asleep for a day.

"I got here but Officer Jenny was here first, with umbreon's original trainer. She took her to the police station with him." That happened yesterday? He'd had an entire day's headstart. How would I ever get her back? What was happening to her? Well, I had to start somewhere.

"Come on, we're going there," I ordered. I knew charizard would agree; he'd fight to get her back too. I sat up and realised why he hadn't left with me earlier. My left hand was cuffed to the side of the bed. Well, balls.

"I wanted to look after her, but if I'd got in trouble, you couldn't rescue both of us without help," charizard explained. I grudgingly agreed. He was right. Well, there were three ways out. I could ask charizard for help. No way. I knew, at the back of my head, that he would never listen to a weak trainer. I could break my thumb and slip my hand out. Painful, but guaranteed to earn charizard's respect. Or, I could break the bar or cuffs. The bed hadn't done anything to me, and I didn't want a broken thumb, so I guess it was the cuffs. I closed my eyes and concentrated on the aura, focusing on the structure of the metal. I was surprised to find that it was made of crystals! Miniscule, metal crystals, but crystals nonetheless. Well, it made my job easier. All I had to do was to slip one slightly out of place and...

_**Crack!**_

A loud crack split the air as the handcuffs broke from my wrist. Charizard looked amazed.

"Wow," he said. Well, we couldn't just stand, or sit, around.

"Come on, we need to go," I nagged. I shakily got up - why? I'd only been asleep for a day - and started quickly walking towards the exit. Charizard caught up with me as I went outside.

"Walking's all well and good, but there's a much quicker way," he remarked. I was intrigued; what was he thinking? I shouted as he picked me up and threw me into the air. What the hell did he think he was doing? Then he opened his wings, and I realised: he was a charizard. He could fly now! He caught me, surprisingly gently, and we began flying quickly forwards.

We reached the police station much faster than even I could run. However, by the time we got there, things were not good. There was a giant meowth-shaped robot, probably metal, outside the station with two people and a meowth on top. There was an arm extending out of it, holding a pikachu. Charizard quickly hit the ground, jolting me off his back.

"Give me back my pikachu!" I heard Ash shout. The two people on top of the machine just laughed.

"We told you to prepare for trouble," one said. I couldn't just stand here and let them steal pokémon! I ran to the machine and rapped it with my knuckles. It echoed hollowly; that was good, it was metal.

"Don't waste your time," the other person said. "It's several inches of the hardest metal in existence. You'll never break it!" I laughed silently at their ignorance. That's what they thought. I used the aura to find out how it was arranged. I found controls, wires, pipes, even what seemed like a dining room. Finally I found what I was looking for.

"Charizard, on my signal, use your strongest fire attack, right here," I told him, pointing to a small area above my head. He nodded at me, unsure of what I was planning: we both knew it was virtually indestructible. But everything has weaknesses and I knew its. I heard the two people start laughing again.

"Even your puny little charizard couldn't break this," the woman shouted. We both ignored it and I began concentrating. It was a lot thicker, and harder to break, but all I had to do was be cleverer, not use more force. I focused on the weak points, the ones already with a lot of internal stress on them from the weight of the machine. All I had to do was work with the stresses, not against and...

_**Crack!**_

Just as I had done before, I had cracked it - haha, corny pun, me. It hadn't broken apart, but it had split, creating a small hole to - if I was right - the fuel tank. I gave a small gasp as the energy I'd used breaking it drained out of me; I'd used far more than I should've. Somehow, I managed to keep standing and shout.

"Now, charizard!" Then I remembered pikachu was attached to it and if, no, _when_ it exploded, he would be thrown and I had no idea how far. And the world stopped again. The dragon I'd seen before entered my field of view.

"Don't worry, you aren't doing badly. In fact, I'd say you were doing splendidly. Right now, you don't even need me, you just need a little time to think. I do think though that you need to get better at that, you will need to start thinking much faster, both for battles and situations like this. Anyway, enough of my talking, get on with this!"

I could still feel the aura, so I assumed it meant I needed to use that. I felt out towards the arm; it was plastic. Well, that made sense if they wanted to capture an electric type. I could feel how each little bit of it supported and held together the whole, and saw the way to break it. I tried to break it there and then, but the dragon interrupted again.

"I thought you were clever. You can't affect the outside world like this, it would be moving something infinitely fast, which is impossible. No one can break those sorts of rules. Wait until you're back in the real world." And with that, it turned and left again. I readied myself for what I knew was coming next. Right as charizard fired his flamethrower, I used my aura to free pikachu. The flamethrower hit dead on, making the fuel tank blow up. Whoops, I'd forgotten about me; I was next to it. I felt myself fly backwards through the air as the people - and meowth - on top disappeared into the distance, pushed from the force. I landed on my back, my skin tearing off as I scraped along the ground and leaving a smeary trail of blood behind me. Injured. Again. Great. Why did this always happen to me?

Then I caught sight of pikachu, not going nearly as fast as me, clearly thrown by the explosion. 'Think faster,' the dragon had said. Hardly having to think at all, I reached out with my limited psychic power and slowed him down just before I caught him. I knew I had to stay awake, but I was tired and injured. Charizard was watching me, forcing my decision. I couldn't be weak with him around. I slowly got up as Ash came running over to pikachu.

"Pikachu, are you alright?" He asked. Well, pikachu was, but I was bleeding and burnt and it bloody well hurt! Officer Jenny walked over to me.

"Well, I was going to arrest you after you'd recovered," she said. "But after your rescue of that pikachu, I think I'll drop all charges, as long as you don't go after the umbreon again, OK? Now, come with me, and you can go back to the hospital."

"No!" I said firmly. She looked at me funnily.

"I just want to get out of here. There are too many bad memories." I lied. She nodded understandingly.

"Fine. I won't stop you, but you do need some medical attention." She responded, walking away. Charizard came over.

"Why are you acting so... macho all of a sudden?" I was honestly surprised he'd noticed.

"I was afraid you'd think I was weak," I replied.

"Is it really strength that matters?" He asked. He was beginning to sound like the trainer here!

"The next time I collapse when one of my friends is in danger, ask me that again," I angrily growled at him. He just grinned, threw me onto his back again and started flying.

"I don't know where I'm going though, so you'll need to tell me," he remarked. I started reaching out with the aura. I could sense hundreds of pokémon, all around us, but not an umbreon. How was I so weak? How could I not find her? And then I came across a familiar pokémon.

_Lucario, is that you? _I thought.

_What do you want?_ He asked me.

_I need to find umbreon,_ I told him.

_Give me a second,_ he said.

A few seconds passed, and then we both found her at once.

_There,_ lucario told me.

_I know, thanks,_ I replied. With that, I broke the link and told charizard where she was. Then, something happened. I still don't quite know how to describe it. It was sort of like a twang, in the aura. I could feel ripples spread for miles around me, centering over umbreon.

_Hurry!_ Lucario shouted at me and charizard. We already were.

Charizard landed in a clearing, not far away from where I'd felt umbreon. He landed with a heavy bump, knocking me off his back, but I was ready. I landed on my feet, ready to act. The first thing I noticed: we were on a rocky path. Just like my dream. I saw umbreon, perhaps only 50 or 100 metres away, but it seemed way, way too far when I saw her original trainer, standing over her, knife raised. Just like my dream. It was going to happen again, but in real life this time, in front of me. I couldn't just stand here and let this happen a second time. I sharply turned to charizard.

"Charizard, hit me! Now!" I barked at him. He reacted almost immediately, hitting me with all his considerable force, sending me flying. The sheer force of the hit had cracked a few of my ribs, but I could live with that. I couldn't live without umbreon.

My feet scraped the ground and I ran into the landing just as the knife came down towards her exposed neck, but this time was different. I knocked the knife away, and shielded umbreon with my body. I felt him punch me in the stomach, so I turned and hit him straight back in the head. He fell over, knocked out. I crouched and turned to umbreon, carefully cutting her bonds with the knife he'd dropped. Charizard came over to say hello. I finished freeing her and hugged her. She smiled and hugged me back, then froze. She gently unwrapped her arms from me, and looked at me with a strange look in her eyes, one I hadn't seen before. I noticed a tear trace a line down her cheek.

"What's wrong? Tell me umbreon!" I begged. I didn't want to see her silently suffer like this. She started sobbing, tears flowing freely down her cheeks now. She slowly extended her paw, and I saw it covered with blood.

"Oh no, where did he cut you?" I asked, concerned for her.

"He didn't cut me," she sobbed. "He cut you." I looked down. Sure enough, there was a deep cut where I thought he'd punched me, blood flowing out of it. I suddenly felt a bit faint; I had no adrenalin left and that had been the only thing to keep me going. I was losing too much blood, I couldn't protect them here.

"Charizard, take umbreon and fly to Viridian City. I'll meet you there. If I'm not there in seven days, well… Goodbye." He picked up umbreon, who started thrashing and screaming to be let go. He started flying. I keeled over, my vision dimming and faintly heard a scream from umbreon. As long as she was OK, I was fine.

I laid my head down and gently closed my eyes, going to sleep. The world could wait until later, if ever...


	12. No Hope

**(Author's note) **

First time I haven't hit a deadline! Sorry, but I really am quite busy. However, you can expect another Short Stories chapter soon, quickly followed by one from Michael's New Life. And of course, chapter 13 next Friday. Ooh, unlucky! (Nah, not really, you'll enjoy it. Maybe) Anyway, on with the chapter!

**Chapter 12: No Hope**

**"**_**Every cloud has a silver lining. Except the ones that don't.**_**" ~ Wise Book of Wise Proverbs**

I could hear an alarm going off, loudly beeping about once per second. I turned over, trying to turn it off by reflex. I got tangled up in something and then an excruciating pain shot through my stomach, waking me fully. I was on a clean white bed - again. The beeping was coming from a machine. I figured out it measured my pulse. Numerous wires and pipes had been stabbed into me, although that wasn't why I hurt. I looked under the sheets, and saw a row of stitches on my stomach over where I'd been stabbed. I heard a bark to my right and turned. It was an arcanine telling Officer Jenny I'd woken up. I didn't want to tell it she couldn't understand it; that would just complicate things. But I didn't want to stay around and get arrested for rescuing umbreon, so I started pulling everything off me. The beeping machine started making an annoying high pitched whining, but I just ignored it and carried on. Officer Jenny finally rushed in, responding to arcanine's barking. She immediately saw what I was doing and tried to restrain me. I kept telling her I was fine, she just wouldn't listen. I finally managed to stop her by shoving her away from me and shouting at her,

"I'M FINE!" She didn't believe me but at least she got off me.

"No, you aren't. You're lucky to be living. It took my arcanine, plus a wild lucario and zoroark, working together, to bring you back here still alive. No-one recovers from being stabbed in the stomach in six days." Six days! Oh no, umbreon and charizard would be worried sick. I had to catch them up. I got out of the bed, ignoring the pain I was in and just concentrating on getting to them as fast as I could. I started hobbling across the floor, and Officer Jenny must have guessed what I was intending, because she spoke to me again.

"I'm sorry. She's dead," she said bluntly.

"What?"

"Umbreon died. We found her next to Damien _(Ahh, that's his name!)_ and her throat was slit. We tried to save her, but it was too late." What? I was mentally reeling. She had been flown away with charizard… Hadn't she?

Officer Jenny turned the TV on. It was a photo of the scene, Damien still out cold, and umbreon next to him, lying completely still in a pool of blood. I couldn't… She couldn't be… No. I didn't believe this was happening. I sat back down on my bed and placed my hands over my eyes, whispering to myself.

"It's only a dream, come on Abel, wake up! It's only a dream, she's not really… It's only a dream…" Nothing happened. I'd lost her. That backstabbing bastard! I couldn't find words to describe him, except for evil. She loved me! And I loved her! This wasn't how it was meant to happen, I'd only known her for two days!

"Please… Please no…" I whispered, slowly rocking myself, tears trickling down my face. I wanted to be angry at Officer Jenny for giving her to _him_, but I couldn't. As if she read my mind, she started talking to me.

"I'm sorry. We thought he was taking good care of her. We were wrong." I just wanted to scream, to punch something, anything, she couldn't be dead! I don't care what anybody says, she can't be dead!

"I'm sorry." She repeated. I just wanted her to shut up! She would never know, could never know, how much umbreon and I had truly loved each other. And now she was dead. A cold, empty feeling settled in my stomach - or was it my heart? - and I felt my life had no purpose. What use was a pokémon trainer who couldn't even protect his pokémon? I was useless. Worse than useless.

Suddenly, a pokémon appeared at the door. Officer Jenny calmly looked around, then jumped out of the chair when she saw who was there.

"Arcanine, use flamethrower! Now!" Officer Jenny cried. "Stop!" I shouted, accidently in pokétalk. Arcanine hesitated and looked at me, but Officer Jenny seemed to think it came from her pokémon. She looked around after noticing arcanine wasn't doing anything, and saw him looking at me. More carefully now, speaking English, I said,

"I know zoroark, and I'm sure he was the one who carried me back." Arcanine nodded and sat down. "I know." he replied, growling.

"How did you do that?" Officer Jenny asked in amazement. "The only one arcanine will listen to is me! No-one's ever told him to do anything like that before and made him listen!"

"Well, I'm not most people, especially when I have a charizard to get to." I replied. I might have lost umbreon, but I wouldn't give up on charizard. "Arcanine, thank you. Zoroark, let's go."

***** Zoroark's View *****

Lucario and I were quite near when it happened. We came running, and found Abel bleeding on the floor. Lucario had got there before me, and he'd started trying to carry him in his own. I helped, and then an arcanine came and helped us too. Lucario tried to keep the wound closed and keep the blood in, and he was pale and shaking at the end of the journey, but he was still the first to start running back. Arcanine saw how tired we were and carried me back, but lucario declined. Arcanine and I got back to find, somehow, lucario got there first - teleporting, probably. He told me it took way too much energy to be worth it, but he'd done it now. I could see that he was about to collapse on the spot, and then I saw the reason why. He was standing over umbreon, her neck cut and lying in a pool of blood.

"It's too late," he said. "She's dead." I don't know how we hadn't seen her before. Arcanine brought us both back quite quickly, complaining she "smelt funny". I felt sorry for him.

The rest of the week went by quite quickly. I didn't see much of lucario, it was like he disappeared. Arcanine was on guard duty for the door, so he had no problem letting me in to see how he was doing. A few times I nearly bumped into Officer Jenny, but I managed to escape without being seen, mainly with arcanine's distractions. Then I came in and saw Abel awake, crying on the bed, and I knew he knew. He told me we had to set off, so I left with him, quickly saying goodbye to arcanine. After he'd bought a sandwich, complaining that his stomach was killing him, we ran all day, stopping briefly to eat a few berries and drink a bit a few times, but it was Abel that kept us going. About halfway through the day, the stab wound split open again. He just used the aura to stop the bleeding and carried on. To be honest, it made me feel rather queasy.

We were nearly there when Abel spotted some tracks by a stream.

"Now, the reason the tracks are visible there is because they've been pressed into the soft mud. But I can see what happened just by looking, just gaining a little glimpse into the life of this pokémon." He knelt down and began examining the tracks.

"That's interesting," he said. "What?" I asked.

"First off, it's an eeveelution, possibly flareon or espeon. That's rare in itself. Next, it was running, almost as if it was being pursued. But if it was being chased, why would it stop for a drink? Especially for a few minutes."

"How can you tell it stayed there for that long?" I questioned.

"First off, the footprints are deeper. Not hard to see. But they're also slightly warm. Which brings me onto the next point. It was here about 30 seconds ago. We just missed it."

"Why don't we go after it? Ask it what happened?" I asked.

"I'd rather get on, and anyway, at that speed, it would be hard to catch, let alone talk to. Besides, it's going in the opposite direction, towards those cliffs. It would take us more time than it's worth." So we just continued. I could tell he wasn't telling me something, but I left it.

Finally, in the evening, we reached Viridian City, where I told Abel lucario was looking after charizard.

"He told me we could find him in the woods." I said. Abel closed his eyes for a second, and replied.

"I've found him." He muttered.

***** Abel's View *****

I closed my eyes and found charizard's and lucario's auras. Sure enough, umbreon was nowhere to be found.

"Come on," I said.

We found them quickly, in a clearing. They both had sort of makeshift tents made out of sticks and leaves, plus one for me, and some meat on a spit over a fire. I didn't really want to ask what it was, but I still felt hungry. Lucario must've noticed me looking at it, because he told me to help myself. I tore some off and started eating, ravenous after the day's running. Lucario looked at me and anxiously asked me what had happened to my stomach. I looked down; my top was still covered in blood from earlier today.

"It split open, but I managed to fix it." I told him. He nodded, impressed.

"You're making progress, at least," he replied. Charizard said hello to me, then proceeded to go over to one of the tents. Surprising me, he gave a soft cry.

"Lucario! Come here, now!" Lucario looked into the tent and suddenly he went from happy to deeply worried.

"Where's umbreon?" He asked.

"What? She's dead! Are you crazy?" I asked. Zoroark looked worriedly at lucario too, unsure - like me - of what was happening. I went over to the tent and looked inside. There wasn't much, but it was all I had to work with. There were seven scrapes in the ground, arranged in a tally pattern. There was a damp area of ground, and next to it, heavily indented, a pawprint. Umbreon's pawprint. I was ecstatic, but I had to brush my emotion aside and concentrate. Behind it, more lightly pressed, were three other pawprints.

"What happened?" Charizard asked, as worried about her as I had been.

"I haven't seen anything you can't see, but I do have observations." I replied, much more calmly than I felt. I felt like screaming, out of frustration and anger and just being worried for her. I can't even describe the mixture of emotions coursing through my body, something along the lines of anger and sorrow with a faint lingering of hope. It made it hard to think, but it sped up my brain and made me feel ready for anything like no amount of adrenalin ever could.

"Firstly, the seven scrapes. They're a tally; she was counting something. If I'm not wrong, she was counting days." A thought struck me. I brushed it aside and carried on, I had to focus…

"The damp patch. I'm not certain, but I think…" I brushed my fingers along it, making them damp and tasted them briefly. Salty.

"Tears." The thought became more urgent, pushing to the front of my mind. I continued to ignore it and kept going.

"The pawprint… She wanted to say something. Lucario, get in that sort of position," I said, gesturing to the marks. He quickly obeyed, putting all four of his paws on the ground. I could see the slight indents, how she was standing, but I didn't know what it meant. I carefully began to push lucario's limbs around, raising his shoulders, bending his legs slightly. I finished, and lucario got up, and exchanged a glance with zoroark.

"Well? What does that mean?" I asked urgently, unfamiliar with pokémon body language.

"Goodbye," they said in unison. And I couldn't help it. The thought… I told them to go on without me after seven days, she thought I was dead, she'd been crying, not 10 minutes ago… Now this. Goodbye. Oh, no.

And... By the stream, I knew it was an umbreon, but I didn't want to follow it and be reminded of her. Arceus, I was STUPID! Heading towards the cliffs, thinking I was dead... I couldn't let her do this. There was no FUCKING WAY I was going to let her do this! She was going to jump off a cliff!


	13. A Bad Week

**Chapter 13: A Bad Week**

**"**_**The ones closest to you are the ones that hurt you the most.**_**" ~ Wise Book of Wise Proverbs**

***** Umbreon's POV *****

I couldn't believe what was happening. Abel was dying, right before our eyes and charizard was flying away, and worse, taking me with him. I started screaming and struggling to free myself, but I couldn't escape from his tight grasp. The last thing I saw was him falling over into the pool of his blood surrounding him.

"Stop! We have to help him! He'll die!" I screamed at charizard.

"He told me to protect you," he responded. "He gave us an order. We told him we'd listen, remember? He said we might not like it, but it would be vital." I remembered, but I didn't like it.

"Yes, but he's _dying!_" Charizard didn't reply. I knew he was as worried as I was, but he could take orders.

Half an hour later, we were at Viridian City. I'd stopped struggling; it was pointless. I couldn't even run back now, it was too far and I'd lost track of the direction. Charizard landed in a clearing and put me down. I lay down and began crying while he made tents and a fire. Eventually he came over and sat beside me.

"Don't worry, I'm sure he'll be fine. Besides, it'll take him at least a day to get here, so don't worry. I'm sure tomorrow we'll see him come into the clearing, happy to see both of us safe." I gave him a small smile. At least he was trying to cheer me up, even if it didn't work. I took a few deep breaths and calmed myself. Charizard was right. He would be back, I just had to wait.

We were both sitting by the fire. The stars shone brightly in the black night sky. The moon was full, casting it's silvery light over the world, and I felt fine. I could almost forget about him, what might have happened to him...

"I'm worried about him too, you know," charizard stated, staring at the fire. "But we promised him, and it would hurt him more for us to stay." He looked at me to see my response.

"I know, but I didn't want to leave him behind," I sadly said. "I wanted to stay and help, no matter what he said." Charizard pondered what I said for a moment.

"I understand," he told me as if I should've known. He sighed. "We should go to sleep, otherwise we'll be too tired to do anything tomorrow."

"Speak for yourself," I told him. "The moon's nearly full; I could stay up all night and still be fine in the morning. I feel great." He grunted. "See you in the morning then," turning and retreating into his tent. I said I could stay up all night, but as beautiful as it was, I didn't want to. I sat there considering my position for a few minutes. There was nothing I could do except sleep. Charizard had made me my own tent, but I wasn't in the mood to sleep cold and alone on the hard ground. I crept into his tent, hoping he was asleep. I curled up next to him, feeling his body press against mine, warming me. I thought he was asleep already, but after I lay down he wrapped his tail around me and covered me with his wing, warming me more. Like a father. Like he cared.

"Thank you," I quietly said, and went to sleep.

I woke on the second day to charizard curling his tail around me again. There was a pile of berries on a leaf in front of me, and he was just lying down, covering me up just like last night. I wriggled a little bit to make myself more comfy, and he noticed I was awake.

"I feel bad," he said. "I should've listened to you, I should've stayed behind-" I interrupted him.

"No! Don't you dare say that," I told him, rolling closer to face him. "He told us to, and you did. That's what pokémon are supposed to do, right?" Charizard just looked more distraught.

"What if I killed him?" He asked me, tears starting to flow down his cheeks. To be honest, I felt like that too, but one of us had to calm the other. Besides, he'd only just evolved from charmander. I moved towards him and threw my arms around his huge neck.

"Don't worry, he'll be fine. He had a plan, he wouldn't just leave us alone, would he?" I consoled him. He nodded, like me, not entirely convinced.

"We just need to wait. One week, he said. Come on, it's not that bad," I told him. We didn't talk much after that, except in the evenings.

Later that day, charizard was hungry and fed up. Both of us working together couldn't find enough berries to sustain him. I was just about fine, but there weren't anywhere near enough for him. He'd been trying for a couple of hours to catch a pidgey, but they were just too small, fast and nimble for him. Finally, after failing for the umpteenth time, he landed. He gave a giant roar so loud it shook the trees. And then he took off again, but this time he was just as fast and nimble. It only took him a few tries before he caught one, snapped it's neck and landed. Somehow, he'd become angry enough to use rage! I helped him clean and cook it, even though I was a little squeamish. I wanted to help, and besides, it was only fair. I mean, if we were both going to be eating it...

The next day, we had enough time on our hands to be bored. We'd just eaten, tidied up, we had a fire, and it was still the morning! Then we heard a sound.

"Haha, yeah, no wild pokémon will stand a chance!" We heard someone shout. A person. And then a reply.

"I know, right? Both of us together, we can't lose!" Charizard grinned at this.

"Well, we can't let them get too close, can we? And that sounds like a challenge!"

I caught up with him just as he burst into the clearing. Uh oh. There was a wartortle. It shot a powerful water gun at him, and I knew how much that must tire charizard. He staggered away, just as I was hit. The other boy had a hitmonchan! I was sent reeling, landing on my feet close to charizard. The wartortle was readying itself to fire again. The trainers were just laughing. I tackled charizard, moving him away just before the water gun hit.

"Take hitmonchan!" I screamed. I launched straight into a quick attack, giving the wartortle no time to attack charizard again. I was close to it when suddenly, almost by instinct, I changed attacks. I tried to use tackle, but it wasn't; in fact I'd never used this attack before. When my body started aching, I realised I'd learnt a new move: body slam! I used it again, and the wartortle fainted at the feet of its trainer. I turned just in time to see charizard knock out the hitmonchan with a kick. The boys quickly withdrew them and ran away.

That was only the start. Over the next few days we fought countless trainers and learned many new moves. Most of the week was quite repetitive, but both of us welcomed it because it kept us busy, kept our minds off Abel.

On the sixth day, we were just sitting in the clearing when someone came and startled us.

"Shh!" Charizard exclaimed. "I can hear something!" We quietly waited, excited for Abel's return. The leaves on one side rustled and I sprang up, ready to greet him and tell him how much I'd missed him. Then lucario came through the bushes. I tried to hide my disappointment, as did charizard. He came and helped us, set up his own tent and helped hunt. Neither of us asked about Abel and he didn't tell us. I tried to keep it from my head, but I couldn't help thinking the only reason he would keep silent was if Abel was dead.

I woke up on the seventh day feeling worse than ever. Charizard would make us move on today, leave _him_ behind. That is, if he was even still alive. I crept out of my tent. Oh no! I'd overslept! The sun was near the horizon, except it was evening. Charizard saw me and handed me some meat with some berries.

"Eat up, we're going soon," he told me. Just like I said. Abel's last orders, to the letter. I slunk back into the tent, laid my head on my paws and wept. He was dead; never coming back. I'd never see him again. The enormity of the situation began to sink in. Gone, forever. I stood up, I had to go. Find his body, anything except stay here. I stamped my paw into the soft soil, leaving a goodbye for charizard and lucario. I used quick attack out of the clearing, hoping no one saw me. I don't think they did. I kept running all day, avoiding people and pokémon alike. I stopped once to drink at a small stream, then carried on. Eventually I came to the cliffs I saw flying here. Well, maybe if I died, Arceus would be kind and let me see him again, join him. And if not, at least I wouldn't have to live without him. A life without love; even the thought of spending the rest of my days without him made me shudder.

I slowly made my way to the top of a cliff, following the small, steep path up the side of it. _Well, this is it,_ I thought, peering over the edge. It was quite high, but that was the reason I chose this one. I wasn't afraid in the slightest though; I was happy. I was going to see Abel again, the trainer who captured my heart. I took a step back and leapt.

I almost feel like I'm flying for a second, legs spread, over the edge. It feels wonderful, and I'm happy these are my last moments. _I'm coming, Abel,_ I whisper to myself. And then I start falling, wind whistling through my fur and reaching pretty incredible speeds. The ground's rushing towards me, but I won't flinch. Why would I? It would all be over soon, and then I would see him again.

I hit the ground. I'm not dead, otherwise I wouldn't be thinking that. All of a sudden, the pain strikes me, making me convulse in agony. The pain is horrible, but I know that nothing is worse than the pain of Abel's death. I check my injuries quickly, and they aren't as bad as I expected. A broken ankle and a couple of broken ribs. I slowly drag myself up, blood dripping onto the ground. It's only then I notice two bones jutting out of my body, a rib and the ankle. I start painfully limping up again, ready to jump again and end this. I make slow progress with one broken ankle and several broken ribs, but I still carry on. I think my body is producing some chemical that dulls pain; it hurts, but I know it should be hurting much, much more.

Ages have passed since I started walking, so I look back, and I see a trail of blood behind me. I haven't reached the same place, but here will do. I cough and blood splatters across the cold rock in front of me, some just lazily dribbling out the corner of my mouth. Normally that wouldn't be good, but it didn't really matter right now. I wander towards the edge. I can barely jump off, it's more like a fall. I near the ground when I feel a sharp pain in my stomach. I've fallen onto a spike, a sharp bit of rock protruding from the ground. It slows me down, but all the force of the fall is onto the spike, through my stomach. I feel chips break off inside me, shredding my organs and pushing me past the point of no return. Pokémon are resilient; that's how they can battle so much. But no pokémon is this resilient. A psychic type might be able to stop itself falling, but once it's gone this far...

Blood begins to drain out of me faster, covering the pointy rock and making me slide further down. I can feel my body start shutting down, and I wince in pain, but it'll all be over soon. I know I only have a few seconds left as the blood starts coming out in spurts, my heart beating harder to try and make up for the lack of it, but just pushing it out quicker. My eyes dim and close as I lose my hold on the world. _I'm coming._ And then nothing.


	14. Moving On

**Chapter 14: Moving On...**

**"**_**Sometimes you just need to leave them behind." ~ **_**Wise Book of Wise Proverbs**

***** Abel's POV *****

I'd just found out that umbreon was trying to commit suicide, so I didn't have the best frame of mind.

"Arceus! What if I'm too late? What if I can't save her?"

Panic had me in its grasp.

"What the hell does she think she's doing?"

I wasn't really thinking straight.

"How on earth am I going to save her?"

The lucario decided I'd gone far enough and brought me to my senses with a swift punch.

"OUCH! Why the hell did you do that?!" I asked, already aware of the answer. Lucario shook his head.

"No time," he said, clearly focusing on umbreon. Just like I should've done. He placed his paws on my shoulders and closed his eyes. Suddenly I felt a tremendous influx of energy from him; he must've been putting every spare ounce he had in.

Then, suddenly, for no apparent reason, he started invading my mind, attempting to control it. He was trying to enlarge my ego; make me believe that I was the centre of the universe. I fought back with all I had - umbreon mattered to me most right now - but then he suddenly stopped.

_Do you want to save her?_ He asked. I nodded.

_Then trust me, _he said. This time, I let him, let myself believe the universe was centred around me, and me alone.

_Now you just need to let the universe rotate around you,_ he said. _Easy, right? _I imagined it, me staying still, the whole universe moving around me, picturing where I wanted to go... That wasn't hard...

Suddenly, I wasn't in the clearing any more. I was next to cliffs. I took a second to orient myself. The energy drain hit me. No wonder lucario gave me that much energy! If I'd tried this on my own, I'd have died.

I looked around, and then I saw her. Umbreon. Dead, impaled by a spike. She'd jumped before I got here. No, this couldn't be happening. _Please, Arceus, no. It has to be a dream. _I walked over to her as if I was half asleep. The blood was wet and she was still warm; I was about thirty seconds too late. _If only I'd acted faster, she wouldn't be... Dead_. I checked her pulse, her breathing, just in case. No luck. This time, she was dead, and all I could think was,_ it was my fault, all my fault_. I loved her, she loved me, and now she was dead.

_I made her a promise._ "_I'll protect you,_" I'd said. "_I won't let anything happen to you._" I gently lifted her body off the spike and laid her on the ground, tears falling from my cheeks. _No, please no._ I thought she was dead, and then when I found out she was alive I couldn't have been happier. And now she was dead again, but this time for real. _Why did she have to jump? I loved her... She loved me._

Something inside my brain snapped. _Fuck the world_. I made an instant decision. I didn't want to live without her, but neither was I going to throw my life away jumping off a cliff. I'd try this, and if I died in the process, well, fine. _I'd rather die than live without her, just like she did for me. _

I gave myself five seconds - still too much, in my opinion - to think about what I was going to do, what I had to do. And then I started.

My first priority was keeping the intact parts of her, well, alive. I knew about cells and stuff, so I closed my eyes and fixed all her blood vessels. I concentrated and began artificially moving her blood, trying to keep it flowing around her. At least, what was left. She'd lost a lot. _How the hell would I fix that? _

Next, I had to fix her organs. They were still losing some blood, and besides, she needed them to live. I gently removed the chips of rock, with my hands if I could, with the aura if I couldn't, and then I began the hard work. I had to imitate the remaining bits, and I made the cells already there replicate at about 43,200x their normal speed, which took up huge amounts of my energy, not to mention the intense concentration needed. I fixed her stomach, her lungs, her intestines, and then I came to her liver. The tatters of it still there were completely wrecked. _Oh, shit._ You can live without two thirds of your liver, but she had about a tenth. I knew I couldn't repair it from what was there. _Arceus, please let this work,_ I thought to myself, offering a quick prayer. I picked up a sharp shard of rock and cut deep into my side, pointedly ignoring the pain and blood. I used the aura to sever half my liver - _Arceus, this better work_ - quickly staunching the bleeding, and put it in her, attaching her blood vessels to the part of my organ. It was like a puzzle piece: it fit, but was it right? _In theory, we'll both survive and it'll grow back, but in practice with a person and a pokémon, I'm not sure._ Well, it was the best I could do, and anything I could do would help. She was dead anyway, and I had nothing else to lose.

Finally, I fixed her bones, her skin, her fur. She looked almost like she was sleeping, lying there. I started to use the aura to try and make her heart pump, make her breathe again, but it was all me. No response from her. Well, that was it. _She's dead; never coming back. Why did I even try? Well, if I'm willing to sacrifice my life for her, the pokémon that loved me, there is one last thing... One last thing I can do. _I picked up the rock again and slit my wrist, blood squirting out of the artery and some leaking out the vein. I quickly cut hers as well, then used the aura to heal them together. I felt a sudden pain in my chest as my heart struggled to push the blood the extra distance around her body. But I was getting none back, all of hers was splashed over the rock and I didn't have enough for both of us. _Maybe I'll die. Who cares? She didn't. I'd be with her again. _I grew dizzy and tipped over; I couldn't even stay sitting up. I started seeing stars, then my vision dimmed. I sighed and fainted, my last thought simply being "not again".

I woke up. The full moon was directly above me; that wasn't what woke me. And then I felt it. My wrist started tickling. I could feel her pulse going strong! And then it got better. She gasped, coughed then started breathing. I rolled over towards her, propping myself over her with my arms, and then she opened her eyes and stared at me for a second, her pupils dilated. She blinked and her eyes were normal again. Then she opened her mouth and spoke.

"A... Abel?" She stuttered, as surprised to see me as I was to see her. I gave her a massive grin, which she quickly reciprocated before launching herself at me and kissing me full on the lips. I tried to make out what she was saying, but it came out a bit muffled because her lips were on mine and her tongue buried deep in my mouth. I hugged her with the arm that wasn't attached to her and kissed her back. I could taste her saliva mixed with a little blood, and a hint of stale Oran Berry, but I didn't care. I was too happy that she was alive to care. I just stayed there, kissing her, and loving every second I was back with her.

After a few minutes, she broke away, giggling. I let her; I wasn't going to force her to do anything she didn't want to.

"I can hardly believe it," she said. "Thank Arceus I'm here, with you." I laughed.

"Arceus knows you made it hard enough," I reply, commenting on the fact I'd had to save her. She looked a little puzzled,but shrugged and leant in towards me again, hoping for another kiss. I smiled as her belly rubbed gently against me, and pushed her away.

"Wait, give me a second," I told her. Our wrists were still attached by our blood vessels, so I quickly cut them and re-healed them back into our wrists. She looked at me, again puzzled.

"Why did you do that?" She queried.

"You wanted to stay tied to me?" I responded, grinning. She smiled and shook her head.

"No, why were they like that in the first place?"

"I had to... I had to do it. To... To save you," I stumbled, suddenly nervous. I don't know why, I just felt scared. She took a deep breath and told me what was wrong.

"I jumped off a cliff. I'm dead, but that's good because I'm with you now," she mumbled. And then, I finally understood.

"You jumped off a cliff... To be with me?" I asked her. She nodded and added,

"Twice. But I'm here now, and that's all that matters." Oh, Arceus, how much did she love me? At that point, I felt I could never repay her devotion to me. I'd have to break it to her gently.

"Umbreon..." I started. She looked at me questioningly. "I'm not dead. I didn't die." She stared, dumbfounded.

"So that means... The blood... I'm... Alive?" She demanded, albeit hesitantly. I nodded, indicating the affirmative. Her eyes widened, her jaw dropped slightly.

And then, with a gentle thud, I was on my back, her on top of me. She'd flipped me over! She was in control now, standing on my arms, practically pinning me. I flinched, scared of what she was going to do. She leant her head over, right next to me, and whispered, "I love you." _Did she...? She just...? Never mind, I'll-_

My thoughts were interrupted again as she went at me with everything she had, kissing me passionately on the lips. Her tongue found its way back into my mouth and she drooled all over my face. It was almost as fierce as an attack, and for a second I thought she'd used Sweet Kiss. Turns out it wasn't, it was a Passionate Kiss, but they had much the same effect on me. Never mind, I was going to show her I cared for her too, I wrapped my arms tightly around her and kissed her back. After a few minutes, I tried to tell her how much I'd missed her, how I'd needed her, but my words just came out as mumbles, which wasn't surprising given that her tongue was wrapped around mine. She practically shoved her face in my mouth for a few last seconds, then withdrew to hear what I had to say.

"I guess someone missed me then," I chuckled. She gave me a sad little smile before replying.

"I thought you were dead," she said, coming back towards me and pulling herself closer to me with a fierce hug. I felt the gentle pressure of her head on my shoulder. I laid back down, hugging her. She shuffled a bit to get more comfortable, and simply stated, "I missed you,"

"I missed you too," I solemnly replied. I put my hand under her chin and gently lifted her face, making her look at me, eye to eye.

"But we're both here now, and that's all that matters," I said. She giggled again, placing her head right in between my neck and shoulder, tickling me slightly, which made me laugh and wriggle. I wrapped my arms around her.

"Don't ever let me go," I told her. "I couldn't live without you."

"Neither could I," she replied. Then I heard a sound.

I quickly rolled over umbreon, putting her down and jumping up to my feet. I stepped over her and looked towards the source of the sound. There was a massive pokémon standing there, almost majestically with its large purple mane and slender blue body, but I had no clue what it was; that was unusual. My brain usually knew, it had for all the others I'd met. Well, it didn't matter that much.

"Don't worry umbreon, I'll protect you until I breath my last," I told her. I wasn't planning to lose her a second time. "No!" She mewled, cublike, as if she could stop me.

"You're quite cocky, aren't you?" It said. "But you aren't stronger than me." Ha. It was wrong. I'd be however strong I need to be to protect umbreon.

"Please no, I don't want to lose you again," she cried, scared that I'd die. And for her, it wouldn't be the first time.

"But, if you want a fight..." It sighed. Suddenly, it used a quick attack, but without the quick. I could see clearly where it was and it looked to be going slowly. _What's going on? _I wondered. Then I realised: I had some of umbreon's blood. Well, I couldn't wait to see what else it could do!

It sprang towards me, and umbreon cringed and yelped, sure it would hit me, but just as it arrived I moved myself and it was sent stumbling through the place I'd been. It chuckled and umbreon gasped in astonishment.

"Not bad, not bad..." It mused. It tried again, running towards me. I dodged again, easily, then finally a third time. And then I noticed what it had done. I was now ten large steps from umbreon. It noticed me looking at her and ran towards her. I did too, but I was too late. It had her in its mouth, teeth around her neck. She hung limply, showing her submission. I didn't want her killed either, so I stopped.

"Wha're you goin' oo do?"It asked me, umbreon muffling its speech. I had no idea, until it hit me. My entire body flooded with adrenaline, and a split second later, I felt huge amounts of energy filling me. Every muscle in my body tensed, I felt like a giant string being plucked. Of course, the moon!

At that point, all the stress, the energy, the adrenaline, I used on that one short burst of speed. To me, the world stood still as I ran towards it. I aimed for its neck, but it was still nearly too fast for me. It tried to dodge me, but it just made my shot slam into its head instead, forcing it to drop umbreon. I stepped over her and continued trying to shove it away from her. One last massive heave, and it was sent skidding away across the rocky ground. The pokémon just laughed at me.

"I'll fight you again when you're always that strong. I'll be keeping an eye out for you!" It turned and began to walk away, then called as it left,

"By the way, my name's Suicune. Perhaps you should ask someone about me." With that, it gracefully bounded away. I looked at umbreon. Everything was fine: she was safe. I was just tired now. The adrenaline left me, and I started to fall. I was unconscious before I hit the ground.

***** Umbreon's POV *****

I opened my eyes. Where was I? Was I in heaven? Would I see Abel? I blinked a few times to get rid of the blurriness and I saw him, leaning over me. He grinned and I grinned back. Arceus was kind; he'd given me a second chance with Abel! I was so happy just to be with him. I grabbed his face between my forepaws and kissed him, shoving my tongue almost roughly inside his mouth. I wanted, needed to show him that I loved him, that I cared about him... And that I was sorry for what happened with charmander. It was all a misunderstanding, and I had to make Abel realise. I was ready for him, but we'd only just seen each other again. I'd wait for him to be ready, for him to give me a sign, and then I'd make my move. I pulled away from the kiss, laughing and thinking about more nights with him, and the thought of never leaving his side again. I leant in for another kiss, but he pushed me away! Oh, he had to fix our wrists. Wait, why were they like that anyway? I queried him, and... Wait, what did he say? He didn't die? So if he wasn't dead, then I was... Oh. My. Goodness. He'd done that? For me? He'd saved me?

I shoved him over, the only thought on my mind, _he loves me as well, he cares, he loves me as much as I love him._ I must've scared him, he cringed when I leant in. I told him, "I love you," and then kissed him, excited. I could be with him, right here! He'd saved me! And all I could think of, _more nights with him, more time in heaven on earth._ And I'd make sure he enjoyed himself as well as I could, there was no way I'd let him not... He wanted to speak, so I let him. I could always kiss him again later. I told him I wanted to stay with him, be with him for the rest of my life, until I died, which would be with him too. I wouldn't let him die first and I knew he wouldn't let me, so I guess we'll die together someday in the distant future.

The rest was like a blur. He jumped up and threatened a pokémon; not good. I didn't know what it was, but I knew it was a legendary. I tried to stop him, he didn't listen, but somehow he won. The legendary just... Walked off. And then he fainted.

I remember the next bit vividly because I was so worried. I couldn't carry him to a cave, I was too weak. But I couldn't leave him, he'd be dragged away by wild pokémon, and I don't know what would've happened to him. I sat shouting for help, pleading for someone, anyone to come and help. And what did I get for my troubles? Three horny male pokémon in quick succession. I sent them scurrying back to the holes they came from. _I'm Abel's and his alone, so go away you bastards_. I was about to give up when I saw a familiar face.

"Alakazam! Please, can you help me?" I asked her. She nodded, reading my mind and getting a perfect idea of what was going on, then she used telekinesis to carry him to a cave. It was then she broke the news that she needed to go.

"I can't stay, I really have to go. I'll be back, but I'm sure you can look after him for the moment." Well, of course I could! She left the cave, leaving us alone, so I cuddled Abel, my chest on his, trying desperately to keep him warm. And it worked, and showed me how much he cared, even when sleeping. When I laid on him, he - almost instinctively - put his arms around me, helping keep me warm too. I buried my face in the hollow between his neck and shoulder, and promptly fell asleep.


	15. To Johto!

**Chapter 15: ...to Johto! **

I awoke feeling bright and refreshed, but with none of the speed or heightened senses I had last night. My body must've destroyed umbreon's blood or something. Well, more training, I guess. What was it that pokémon had said? It wanted me to get better, anyway.

Umbreon was lying on me, still asleep, our arms around each other. I wasn't going to wake her - she deserved that sleep - so I lay there, meditating. I could feel the aura and decided to try to charge an aura sphere. I started to concentrate, compressing the aura around me - us - into an area above my head. The large black orb hummed as it grew slowly, never seeming to get louder. I made it grow and grow, but it was getting harder trying to stop it flowing back to the space I'd taken it from. I focused with all my brain, thinking solely about the sphere to the exclusion of all else.

Suddenly, I felt a warm and slimy wetness trail down my cheek. I knew it was umbreon, but it took me by surprise, which made me stop concentrating. _Crap_. I rolled over, placing my body over her, protecting her, as the aura explosively snapped back to its original position, making the field uniform again. There was a large bang, then the cave rumbled, several large cracks appearing, and a few small stones dropped onto me, but apart from that I was fine.

"I... I'm sorry..." Umbreon apologised in a small, stuttering voice. I looked at her and she looked away, sorry for what she'd done. Well, she hadn't known.

"Don't worry, I love you too. It doesn't matter," I told her, hugging her. She looked back at me with her wide, bright eyes and smiled. I leant in and licked her cheek. _Why the hell not?_ She giggled, her soft laugh echoing through the cave. And we heard a voice.

"Umbreon? Abel? Is that you?" I heard a voice echo back. She squealed in delight and started running towards the mouth of the cave, looking for lucario. I followed her into the open, blinking in the bright light. Umbreon was there, hugging lucario, charizard just catching up. Lucario put her down and she ran towards charizard, looking for more hugs. Lucario smiled and looked at me.

"Thank Arceus you're both still alive," he said. I laughed back.

"Still alive? Umbreon died," I told him. He looked confused.

"Never mind, I'll explain on the way back. Do you have anything to eat? I'm starving!" Lucario and charizard exchanged glances. _What does _that_ mean...?_

"There is no more camp," lucario informed me. "We took it down, but you can have some food." He looked in one of the many bags attached to charizard, took out some berries and handed them to me. I popped one in my mouth, thinking. What were we to do next? Wait, hadn't I heard that Ash was going to Johto? It was a sneaking suspicion, but the back of my head seemed to remember, and remember Johto as well. Well, that's where we're going.

"Let's get going then," I suggested. "To Johto." Charizard shook his head.

"I don't know if I can fly that far," he remarked. "I know where it is, my mum took me once for a few days, but I think my wings will get tired." I looked at lucario as I said,

"I can stop that." Both of them looked at me questioningly.

"Tell me when your wings are tired, and I'll help," I reassure them. I could almost hear lucario's telepathy, talking to charizard. After a few seconds, charizard nods.

"Let's go," he said, lowering his back for us to climb on. Lucario sat at the front, I was behind him and tasked with holding onto umbreon. And we began.

The trip took pretty much the entire day. All four of us ate while charizard was flying, including charizard himself. We flew over innumerable forests, some small houses and then the sea. It was then charizard told me that his wings were aching and he couldn't go much further. I showed lucario my new skills and gave charizard some of my energy and soothed his wings, but I accidentally overdid it and passed out.

When I woke up, I was on a cool white bed, but not in a hospital. There was a bunk above me. I heard umbreon's voice and turned. All the pokémon were sitting on a sofa around a table, talking about something. There was a TV which was off, an open window and a closed door into another room.

"We should wait for him to wake up," umbreon told the group. Charizard shook his head.

"Nah, we can go explore for a while. Get used to the area and all that," he said. I decided to interject.

"Well, I'm awake now," I remarked. "I'll stay here if that's what you want though."

"No, that's not what I meant," charizard hastily explained. "I meant we could do something while we were waiting for you." _Well, I'm awake now._

"Never mind, let's go see what we can see," I said, opening the door. I gasped; a massive hall spanned before me, with a huge staircase leading down to large double doors with someone sitting at a desk to the side. _We're in a hotel? How the hell am I going to pay for this?_ I voiced my concern to my friends, and charizard and umbreon exchanged a knowing smile.

"What is it? Can't you just tell me?" I asked, irate. Charizard grinned at me and told me what they'd been doing all week.

"While you were away, we spent half our time fighting trainers," he explained. I nodded, understanding.

"How much did you win?" I asked. Umbreon smiled and interrupted.

"We aren't entirely sure exactly how much, but in the region of $150,000." My jaw dropped; I was completely speechless. _How many trainers have they fought? How strong are they?_ I couldn't wait to find out.

"I should take all the money from you and be really strict with it..." I started, looking for their reactions. Charizard and umbreon looked at the ground, not wanting to directly challenge me but still unhappy. Zoroark tried not to react, but I saw his tail droop. The only one who didn't do anything was lucario; he just stood there, impassive and uncaring. Or maybe it was me, but his eyebrows furrowed a little.

"But of course I won't do that," I continued; why would I want to do that? "I mean, you earnt it, I'll let you spend it." Charizard looked back at me, his eyes bright and sparkling. _Just like when he was charmander_. Umbreon grinned, but then I noticed lucario looking at me oddly.

"And what about when we run out? What will we do then?" He cynically asked. I laughed: that was no problem.

"I'm sure charizard and umbreon don't mind fighting more battles," I said. They eagerly nodded, wanting to please me. Zoroark chose that moment to in.

"I'll help too," he stated. "I'm using it, I might as well help you get more."

"I don't mind working either," I told them. "I'll find a job, work shifts or something-"

"No," umbreon interrupted. We all turned to look at her. She bowed her head, embarrassed.

"We don't mind fighting, and I'm sure you being there will help more than a job..." She trailed off, blushing slightly.

"Well, if you want me to be there, I can advise you, plus I'd like to see what you can do-" she cut me off by leaping into my arms and wrapping herself around me. _Wow, she's really... Huggy? Yeah. She's huggy._

"Come on, let's go," I said. "Let's have some fun." Charizard's stomach rumbled.

"Or some food!" I laughed, happy to be with them all and on our way.

Half an hour later, we were in the best restaurant we could find - well, one that was pokémon friendly - and were all eating. Everyone was relaxed and chatty, and we all knew everything that had happened. Apparently, the umbreon that died was one that lucario found by blind chance that had just died. He knew there would be problems with the police if they thought she was still alive, so he faked her death. I told them about how I found umbreon and what I did. Lucario was particularly interested in that.

"_You've become stronger_," he told me telepathically. I acknowledged him with a smile and nod.

"_Thanks._" But then came the question of what we should do next.

"We could just make it up as we go," zoroark suggested. I didn't really think much of that; we needed some sort of goal, even a vague one.

"Does it really matter?" Umbreon asked. I used my psychic powers to reply.

"_Why are you saying that? Why doesn't it matter, to you at least?_" As I said it, she was visibly trying to stop herself blushing or looking away.

"_I don't care what I'm doing or where I am. I'll be happy, no matter what, if you're with me._" Wow. That silenced me. The way she just said she loved me, without hesitation... And I didn't - don't - care about any stupid laws, I loved her back. Then charizard broke the silence.

"What about gyms?" Now that... That was a goal worth working towards. I grinned at him.

"Now that sounds like a plan," I said.

I turned around to see another trainer like me staring agape at me.

"You... You can talk to pokémon?" He asked questioningly. _Crap._

"No, lucario's translating for me telepathically," I told him. He smiled, still cynical.

"No way," he remarked. "You answered immediately. Lucario couldn't have told you what charizard said in that time." _Oh fuck, this is bad. What if people find out? What if Officer Jenny takes umbreon? Shit_.

"Sit here," I commanded, patting the spot next to me. He stared at me, wide-eyed. He knew he'd overstepped the mark, and now he was in trouble. He clasped his hands on his lap and they were shaking.

"Please, no. I didn't mean it, of course you weren't-" He started. I cut him off.

"Sit here," I repeated. He nervously got up and sat next to me. His growlithe followed suit, and suddenly sprang for umbreon, who was sitting next to me. Something clicked in my brain, and the next thing I knew, I'd pinned it on the table, my knife at its throat. I'd stopped it... In midair? Okay...

And then, a small whistling. That was the only warning I got. I instinctively raised my hand, palm open and away from me, and felt a fist smack into it. I looked around; his trainer had swung at me, trying to get me away from growlithe, but I'd stopped his hand a few inches from my face. He suddenly went from angry to very, very scared.

"I'm sorry, I just wanted to-" I cut him off again.

"Sit down, and then we can discuss this like civil people, instead of having to resort to fighting."

"Sit nicely," I barked at growlithe in pokétalk. I took my knife away from his throat and let him up. He sat silently, scared of what I might do.

"Stop shaking," I ordered. "I promise not to hurt you." _What should I do? I don't want to hurt them, but I need to scare them enough to stop them talking about me_. And then I had a different idea.

"Listen," I started. "I like you. You have a lot of courage, and you clearly treat your growlithe well, it's extremely loyal." He looked at me, puzzled and not entirely sure what I was trying to say.

"I meant what I said, I won't hurt you, but you understand I don't want this getting out." I'd have to be much more careful in the future.

"So what are you going to do?" He asked, a noticeable tremor still in his voice. _They aren't bad guys, and I actually like being around them_.

"How about be your friend?" I asked. I held out my hand, palm open, for him to shake. The universal offer of friendship. He looked at me for a second, trying to figure out my trick, but he shook it.

"I'd be glad," he remarked. "But I'd better be off now." He was still nervous, which was justified. I took a quick glance at his aura, and that of his growlithe, then wished them farewell. _Now I'll remember them if I see them again. I doubt it, but maybe_. _I handled it well though. _

"As for us," I said to the team, "we need to go too. We have a long day tomorrow, training and maybe battling a gym."

Charizard and zoroark nodded tiredly. Umbreon leapt back into my arms. _Is that her favourite place right now? It seems so, from the amount of time she spends here with me_. Only lucario stayed impassive.

"Listen, lucario, you don't need to impress us. We're your friends, we're here for you." I told him. I put umbreon down and hugged him too. He stayed tense for a second, then relaxed into my arms and hugged me back.

"I'm sorry," he stated gruffly.

"_It's fine. We're your friends. Just relax, everything will be okay._" And right then, it was.

Right now, I'm sitting back at the hotel on the computer in the corner, typing this. And that's it. That is the story of how I met charizard and umbreon and began my adventure. And now, there's only one way to go: forward.

**(Author's note) **

Yes. I just wrote a 15-chapter, 23,000 word prologue. That's it! And I'm as excited as you to see what the actual story holds. Thanks for reading, because 90% of the people who see this will have read from the start. Thanks to everybody for being there! I couldn't have done this without the support I received, and even just the readers who read.

Ps. When this goes up (13th Feb 2015), I'm taking a week off (so nothing on Fri 20th) to catch up on the ridiculous amount of work I have. Sorry!


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